The Unicorn and the Stag
by Aneko Kohana
Summary: Meet Rose Potter, Harry's new-found sister with odd powers. Harry and his friends are soon sucked into a web of lies and secrets that can only be broken with time that they don't have.
1. The Unicorn

Disclaimer: The only one of these characters that belongs to me is Rose Lily. All of the others belong to J.K. Rowling.  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
"Rose! I'm right here!" the tall black-haired man said.  
  
"He's in trouble, Sirius. He's hurting!" The redheaded girl lying on the floor of the cave started to cry.  
  
Sirius looked down at the girl. "I think he's at least left his uncle's house. You shouldn't get so worked up about him. You know him. He'll be fine." He patted the girl's back. "I've never seen you so bad before." The girl took a sip from a goblet on the cave floor beside her.  
  
"His uncle beat him, Sirius. We have to find him. We have to get him to Hogwarts immediately."  
  
Sirius sighed and leaned against the wall. He didn't know what to do. If he left to get Harry, Rose might try to reconnect with Harry's mind and have another reaction. If he stayed with Rose, Voldemort could find Harry. He only had one other option. He and Rose had to get Harry.  
  
He made Rose drink a potion which helped her make her transformation into a Unisus, a unicorn with large, gold wings. "Feeling up for a journey yet, Rose?" he asked gently. She whinnied softly, and took off into the night. Sirius followed on Buckbeak.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Harry stumbled across the street.  
  
*Harry.*  
  
He must finally be going crazy. "Hearing voices in your head when no one else can isn't a good thing, even in the wizarding world." He whispered Ron's words to himself. The voice started about the time Uncle Vernon had started beating him, for even the little things his uncle would hit him for. But it had gotten to the breaking point a week ago, when Harry accidentally walked in on one of Uncle Vernon's possible clients trying to negotiate a deal. Harry's large uncle had locked him in his room, away from his wand, while he finished talking with the client. After the man left he had come upstairs and beat him to the point of unconsciousness. When Harry had come to, he decided to run away to Hogwarts, permanently. Ever since then Harry had been walking to the closest wizarding town: Diagon Alley.  
  
*Harry.*  
  
There it was. That voice again.  
  
*Harry! Please talk to me! Can you even hear me? Just think about my voice! Focus on my voice and you will find me!*  
  
Harry tried to shake off the strange feeling the voice gave him. He decided to try what the voice said. He concentrated on the voice. And he felt a sort of mental click, which told him he had done it.  
  
*Hello?* he thought.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Up in the air, Rose came to a screeching halt. *Sirius!* she shot off. *He spoke to me!*  
  
Sirius pulled on Buckbeak's feathers, causing him to hover. *What did he say?* he sent back.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Harry heard another voice, but fainter. It sounded suspiciously like Sirius.  
  
*Is Sirius Black there?* he tentatively asked.  
  
*Yes,* the voice responded. *He's right beside me.*  
  
Harry swore. She was taking him back to Azkaban! *Don't take him back to the dementors! He's innocent!*  
  
The voice laughed, a sound like bells. *I know. He's helped me for a long time. He's actually listening to us right now.*  
  
Harry sighed in relief. *But then why hasn't he told me about you?*  
  
The voice sighed. *I think that is something that he should tell you when he sees you.* The voice paused for a minute or so. When it came back, it sounded worried. *I need to leave now, alright? I'll talk to you again, soon. But before I go, there's something I need to do for you.* The voice took a deep breath and whispered something, And all of Harry's injuries vanished.  
  
*Wait!* he called. *How can I talk to you again?*  
  
When the voice answered him, it sounded tired. *I'll hear you.*  
  
And the voice faded away.  
  
*~*~*  
  
In the air, Rose started to falter. Bruises and cuts were appearing all over her sleak body. Sirius noticed. *Oh, Rose,* he sighed. *You didn't. Not in the air.* She looked his way and smiled.  
  
And then she blacked out.  
  
In the middle of the air. 


	2. The Stag

Disclaimer: All of these characters except Rose Lily Potter belong to J.K. Rowling.  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Harry woke up.  
  
He didn't know when he'd gone to sleep. It must have been after the voice had left...what had she called herself?  
  
He sat up, expecting to feel pain shooting down various parts of him. Instead, he felt great. Better than he'd ever felt in his life. He looked at his arms and hands. There were no cuts or bruises. He felt his head. No blood, no pain. He looked at all the places where his uncle had hit him. Nothing. He didn't even have any dried blood from where the cuts had been.  
  
Then he remembered the incantation the voice had said. He immediately remembered their conversation. She was friends with Sirius! That must mean she was good. Now she had said he needed to ask Sirius about something.about her! She wanted him to ask Sirius about why he was helping her! Harry stopped. He noticed he had been thinking of the voice as a "her." He remembered something she had said: "Focus your thoughts on me and you will find me." He had thought she was just saying that he would be able to talk to her. But now he realized that she must have meant her physical being, her name and location. When Harry thought that last word, "location," he saw something happen.  
  
He was falling to the earth, from far above. His wings were flapping in the breeze. Then a hippogriff flew under him, with a dog on its back. The hippogriff caught him, and up righted him. He saw that he was looking at.himself! Surprised, he snapped out of the daydream. He opened his eyes and found he was looking at a silvery unicorn-Pegasus covered in cuts and bruises, with a large, black, shaggy dog on a hippogriff next to it. As he watched, the dog changed into a tall man with long, dirty black hair. "Sirius!" Harry yelled. He jumped up to hug him. When he sat back down, he noticed that the unicorn had also changed, into a tall redheaded girl. As soon as he saw the girl, he recognized her. She was the voice. He could feel it. But there was something else, too, something he couldn't quite put his finger on.  
  
The girl smiled. *That's right,* she said.  
  
Harry jumped. *You are the voice!*  
  
She smiled again. *Yep. And not only that.*  
  
Harry looked frustrated. *What?*  
  
*I think you already know.*  
  
Harry felt the girl digging through his mind, his memories being searched like a file folder. *What are you doing?* he asked, somewhat angrily.  
  
*Shut up! I'm trying to find it for you.* She screwed her face up in concentration. *Aha! There it is!*  
  
Harry felt a memory come to his mind. He was picturing a scene from when he was a baby. He was playing in his nursery, but there was another person there. A girl. A girl with red hair...  
  
He snapped out of the memory. He looked at the girl, ready to protest her invading his thoughts. It was then when he realized that the girl in the memory looked almost exactly like her. Then he knew.  
  
*You're my sister, aren't you?*  
  
She mentally snorted. *Nooo. I'm your fairy godmother. Duh. Rose Lily Potter. I look like Mum, but I've got Dad's eyes. Or so I'm told. All I know is that I have Mum's hair and face, and Dad's nearsighted blue eyes.*  
  
*You're the one who healed me.*  
  
*Right again. You saw me black out and fall from the injuries I transferred to myself.*  
  
*But how did you get away from.*  
  
*Voldemort? Ask Sirius. I'm tired of explaining.*  
  
*Would you please stop finishing my sentences?*  
  
"I hate to break up this little family reunion," Sirius said, "but we need to go."  
  
His voice had made both Harry and Rose jump. They had been so involved in each others' minds that they had completely shut out the outside world. "Sirius!" Harry protested. "Rose was just telling me how she got away from Voldemort!" Sirius responded, "She can finish at Hogwarts. We have to get there before your uncle finds you.with us." He looked grim. "You won't be able to withstand another beating. Your injuries were so bad the last time that Rose had barely enough power to heal them, especially after the problems she had had making contact. It would probably kill her if she healed you again, but if she broke the link, which is the only thing that lets her heal you, she would have another episode like the one in the cave. She couldn't survive another reaction like that."  
  
Harry almost asked what the difficulties were, until he looked through Rose's mind and found the memory of them. He shuddered. "I don't know how she stands one," he muttered to Sirius. "So how are we going to get to Hogwarts? Buckbeak won't be able to carry my trunk and Hedwig's cage."  
  
"Hedwig's cage isn't a problem," Rose responded. "Starsong can carry it." She whistled, and a phoenix grew out of a pebble on the ground. It hopped up onto her arm.  
  
Harry stared. "Where'd you get that?"  
  
Rose smiled. "I found her egg on the ground deserted when I was seven. I raised her, and in return she acts as my owl. Unfortunately, since she's so noticeable, she generally looks like a tawny." She winked. "The Honeydukes owners got tired of a giant phoenix showing up at their window with requests for candy."  
  
"But what do we do about my trunk?"  
  
"Starsong."  
  
"I don't think even a phoenix could carry that all the way to Hogwarts."  
  
Rose grinned evilly. "Who says we'll be flying the whole way? Are you aware that being an Animagus is a genetic trait?"  
  
She pointed her wand at him and whispered something. Harry felt his feet start to change, the differences moving slowly up his body. Five minutes later, he was a stag.  
  
"Prongs rides again," she said, sadly smiling.  
  
They ran off into the night. 


	3. The Explanation

Disclaimer: All of these characters except Rose Lily Potter belong to J.K. Rowling.  
  
I changed the name of Rose's favorite Animagi from unicorn-Pegasus to Unisus because some people ::cough cough spacegirl!:: thought that the name wasn't very creative.  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter Three  
  
Two days later, they were at Hogwarts.  
  
Sirius dropped them off near the Great Hall. "I'll be in the cave. Take care," was all he said before he left. He and Rose climbed onto Starsong, which was possible because she was such a large phoenix. Starsong carried Harry's trunk in one claw and Hedwig's cage in another. Hedwig had flown to the Owlery, and Rose was carrying her little bag.  
  
Starsong stopped at the only open window in the castle, which was noticeable because there was another phoenix sitting there.  
  
*Fawkes,* Harry thought. *This must be Professor Dumbledore's office.*  
  
Starsong flew into the room and deposited Harry, Rose, and their luggage onto the floor...right in front of Professor Dumbledore's desk. "Rose," he said, "I thought that we decided you were staying with Sirius this summer."  
  
She sighed and looked frustrated.  
  
"I had some." she glanced at Harry, "problems."  
  
"I see," Professor Dumbledore responded. "Harry, why aren't you at your aunt and uncle's house?"  
  
Harry opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a loud snort from Rose.  
  
"Professor, you've been watching him. You've been meddling with Arabella Figg, I saw you."  
  
Harry stared at him. He had never thought that there was anyone who would ever accuse Professor Dumbledore of "meddling."  
  
Dumbledore looked over his spectacles at Harry.  
  
"Harry, I will admit that I have been 'meddling' with your next-door neighbor- she is a witch- so I could make sure that you were safe. Apparently, you were not." He transferred his gaze to Rose. "You're lucky you had your sister to help you. Speaking of which, Ms. Potter, you had better get down to Madame Pomfrey, or she will be after my blood."  
  
She sighed. "Yes, Professor."  
  
She walked down the spiral staircase. Harry started to follow, but Dumbledore stopped him.  
  
"A word, please, Harry?"  
  
Harry turned around and sat back down on his trunk. Dumbledore looked at him gravely. "It is time I tell you everything I should have told you five years ago."  
  
Harry looked confused.  
  
"But...I thought..."  
  
"No, Harry, I am not perfect, although I sometimes wish I am. If I was perfect, then maybe I would have told you this before now." He looked sad. "Before last year. You could have called on Rose for help when Voldemort came. She could have healed Diggory."  
  
"But Professor, I thought you said that no spell can reverse death."  
  
"Rose does not use a spell, Harry. She uses a much, much more powerful form of magic." He sat down. "You see, magic makes a connection between everyone. It is unbreakable. There are a few wizards and witches who have discovered a way to use that bond in a helpful way, like healing. But your older sister has discovered more than that. She can not only heal, but she can also transform into many animals. Yes, the Unisus is not her only Animagus form," he said, noting the look on Harry's face. "I have counted six, and these are only the ones I have seen: Unisus, phoenix, dragon, hippogriff, mermaid, and owl. Have you ever seen a small snowy owl looking through your bedroom window at night?" Harry nodded. "That was Rose. She likes to check up on you, make sure you're all right. That's why she said she had seen me 'meddling with Arabella Figg.' She's your godmother, Harry. As much as the Durseleys hate you, they knew that it would be best for you and them if they were to leave you with her. That alone is what has preserved your ability to practice magic." He noticed that Harry looked uncomfortable. "You have a question, Harry." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Harry responded, "It might be a bit off the subject, but I was wondering how Rose wasn't killed by Lord Voldemort."  
  
"Ah, yes, Harry. I knew you would ask me that." Dumbledore removed his tall wizard's hat and sat it near Fawkes's perch, where Starsong was busy flirting with Fawkes, who didn't seem to mind much.  
  
"Sirius was not the only Black once. No, indeed. He had a little sister. He had always loved her more than anything. She was his favorite person. Until that night Voldemort came to your house.  
  
"She visiting Rose and you when he came. She was standing in the sitting room, right next to the door. She was playing with Rose when James shouted, 'He's here!' Voldemort and a Death Eater burst through the door. James tried to hold them off, but Voldemort simply shot him down." Dumbledore's voice began to quaver. "Your mother grabbed you and Sarah, Sirius's sister, grabbed Rose. They split up. Sarah hid in Rose's room, and your mother hid in your room." There was no mistaking the shaking in Dumbledore's voice. "Sarah's room was closer to the door. The Death Eater came into Sarah's room. He said, 'Give me the child.' Sarah refused. He demanded. Still Sarah refused. So he said those fateful words, Avada Kedavra, and pointed the wand at Rose.  
  
"But Sarah was too quick. She whirled around, so that instead of hitting Rose's head, it hit her in the back. She sank to the floor, but even then she managed to gently fall on top of Rose, protecting her with her body. But the Death Eater simply rolled her aside. He poked his wand into her forehead, and said the curse. But, like it did with you, it bounced back. He was reduced to almost where Voldemort was. But not quite. His curse was not as powerful as the Dark Lord's. He recovered, yet still, now, fourteen years later, he does not have much more power than a second year. But he did regain life. He still lives. And as for Rose, she escaped with only a scar, just like yours, across her forehead." He sighed, and suddenly Harry was aware of just how old Dumbledore was. But he sat up again. "You have another question, Harry?"  
  
"Yes." Harry took a deep breath, and exhaled. "Did you ever find out the name of the Death Eater who killed Sarah Black?"  
  
"Yes. But I don't believe...never mind. The Death Eater's name was..."  
  
Harry leaned forward.  
  
"Lucius Malfoy." 


	4. In the Hospital Wing

Disclaimer: All of these characters except Rose Lily Potter belong to J.K. Rowling.  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter Four  
  
Rose limped into the hospital wing and presented herself to Madame Pomfrey. The stout nurse's response was exactly as she expected.  
  
"You've done it again, haven't you?"  
  
Madame Pomfrey practically dragged Rose to one of the beds. "What hurts?"  
  
"General bodily area, chin, legs, feet arms, hands."  
  
"So basically everything. What have they done to him now?"  
  
Rose looked mad.  
  
"They beat him, Mother."  
  
Madame Pomfrey looked aghast. "Whatever for?"  
  
"Mostly little things. He ran away after he accidentally interrupted 'negotiations' with one of his uncle's clients. I'll kick their sorry-"  
  
"Rosie love, if you make yourself mad it'll just make it hurt more. Now your ankles are both sprained, one hand is broken, the other has a cut down to the bone, both arms broken, ribs fractured, various deep cuts, bruises...I'm beginning to agree with you. They did this because he didn't perfect the kitchen?"  
  
She bustled over to her cabinet. Rose groaned.  
  
"I despise potions."  
  
"They're the only thing that'll get you better. Well, not quite but you'll kill him if he tries."  
  
They both knew that Harry could heal her if he wanted to, but it would give him the injuries instead. And Rose didn't like to be helped in the first place. So she opted for the potion. She took the goblet Madame Pomfrey offered her and quickly gulped it down. She wrinkled her nose.  
  
"Blech. Dad tried to flavor it, didn't he?"  
  
"Yes, he did, and don't complain. Professor Snape tried his best. And why must you always call him Dad?"  
  
"He's the closest thing I have. I really have two fathers and two mothers. I've got Sirius, Severus, Minerva, and you."  
  
Madame Pomfrey smiled. "Then what does that make Professor Dumbledore?"  
  
"I call him Grandpa. But not to his face. And the first time I called any of my parents Mom or Dad, they nearly had a heart attack. I'm glad you got over that."  
  
"Well, you must understand we were all friends of your parents, and it is just slightly surprising to hear your best friends' daughter call you Mom or Dad."  
  
Rose smiled. "I suppose."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Harry was in shock. "So that's why Malfoy's dad hates my guts. It's really obvious. And the hatred was sort of passed down."  
  
Dumbledore looked grave. "Yes, Harry. Lucius Malfoy and his son are bent on getting rid of you. That is why young Draco knows so many curses. His father taught him Dark Magic before Draco was eight. The one reason Draco goes to Hogwarts rather than Durmstrang is that Lucius wants him near you, so he can get to you."  
  
"So he wanted me to be his friend because he wanted to make it easier for his father to get to me."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Slimy git."  
  
"Harry, think about how much Rose must hate him. She hasn't attacked him. She could kill him if she wanted to. But she hasn't. Do you know why?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Then why don't you go ask her?"  
  
"I think I will." Harry strode down the spiral stairs down to the hospital wing.  
  
*~*~*  
  
He got there just in time to see her gulping down a giant goblet of potion. "Rose," he said, "Dumbledore just told me everything."  
  
She smiled at him. "Not everything. He wants me to tell you who raised me."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"My two sets of godparents."  
  
"Who are they?"  
  
"You'll have a heart attack and Madame Pomfrey will kill me."  
  
"Rose! Who are your godparents?"  
  
"All right! Madame Pomfrey and Sirius Black."  
  
"Who else."  
  
"You'll die of shock. Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape."  
  
"Snape helped raise you?"  
  
"Yes! That's how Dumbledore knew he wasn't a Death Eater anymore. That and the fact that he told Dumbledore it was Lucius Malfoy who tried to kill me and killed Aunt Sarah."  
  
Harry sat down on the side of an empty bed. Rose smirked slightly.  
  
"Bit much to take in, eh?"  
  
"I guess you could say that."  
  
Madame Pomfrey came bustling over. Rose opened her mouth, but Madame Pomfrey interrupted her.  
  
"No! Don't even bother asking! Not yet!"  
  
"But-"  
  
"No!"  
  
"Will you just-"  
  
"No!"  
  
"Let me finish a sentence! I will stay in a wheelchair if it makes you feel better, how's that?"  
  
Madame Pomfrey scowled.  
  
"Fine. Go ahead."  
  
Rose grinned gleefully. 


	5. By the Fireplace

Disclaimer: Duh. If you think I am J.K. Rowling, he have some serious issues. But Rose does belong to me. The song is called In Dreams. It's from the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings soundtrack. I am also an LOTR geek, although primarily a Gryffindork (  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter Five  
  
Harry and Rose were walking to Gryffindor Tower. Well, specifically, Harry was walking. Rose was in a wheelchair. Rose did admit that seeing as both her legs were broken, walking would be insanely painful. So she had allowed herself to be put into the chair and pushed by Harry. But not without comment.  
  
*This sucks,* she complained.  
  
*Would you like to walk? I'm sure it would be very easy for you to waltz right up the stairs,* Harry replied sourly. He had had a few too much of Rose's complaints.  
  
*Sorry. I just don't like being helped too much,* she said. *Daddy always said I would keep running if both my legs were cut off.*  
  
*Speaking of your 'parents,' did they actually adopt you?*  
  
*No. They just took me in after Mum and Dad died.*  
  
*I've been wondering about that, too. How did you get out of the house after Voldemort blasted it to pieces?*  
  
*Snape found me. Dumbledore was not entirely truthful when he told you how many Death Eaters came through the door. Overprotective jerk. Snape stayed behind and pretended to be making sure everyone was dead. He grabbed me, but Sirius had already gotten you.*  
  
*So that's why Dumbledore trusted Snape again!*  
  
*Yes. And am I allowed to ask questions?*  
  
*Yes.*  
  
*Who were the people in the hospital wing?*  
  
*Friends. The Weasleys, the Grangers and their daughter Hermione.*  
  
*That Weasley girl near the back looked very worried about you.*  
  
Harry laughed. *That's Ginny. She's fourteen. Ron and Mione say she fancies me. I say she's just shy.*  
  
*Doesn't like to speak around the famous Harry Potter?*  
  
*Don't call me that!* His voice was so sharp it gave Rose a headache.  
  
*The Potter Temper!*  
  
They reached Gryffindor Tower before Harry could retaliate. "Martyn Miggs," Rose said absently. As soon as the portrait hole opened, the Weasleys jumped on Harry.  
  
"You got Madame Pomfrey to let you out? You're a bloody miracle worker!"  
  
That was Ron. Harry laughed. "As long as you're stubborn, it's easy," Rose said modestly.  
  
"Who's the girl?" one of the twins asked.  
  
"She's the new DADA professor," Harry said. "Professor Creek."  
  
"Glad to see you, Harry," Charlie said.  
  
"Hey, Harry. Hi, Rose," Bill said. Rose was smiling at Bill. He did look much tanner than the last time Harry had seen him. His hair was slightly longer, too.  
  
"Hi," Rose said back. Bill seemed to like her, too. Hermione stepped forwards.  
  
"Hello, Harry. Ron's brought your trunk up to your dorm." She turned to Rose. "Nice to meet you."  
  
Rose smiled. "You must be Hermione Granger. I am looking forward to having you in my class. And since you want to know, the books for this year will be Evil Creatures and How to Defend Yourself Against Them and Dark Curses and How to Recognize Them. Here, I brought copies for everyone." She rummaged around in her bag until she came up with three copies of each book and three other books, too. "Here are yours, Ms. Weasley, and yours, Mr. Weasley, and...Mr. Weasley." She had bought them brand-new books. "And, Mr. Weasleys and Harry, since you are absolutely dying to know, the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team will be Mr. Potter."  
  
"I told you!" Fred yelled at George.  
  
George scowled and handed his twin a Galleon.  
  
"Nice, Harry!" Ron said, impressed.  
  
"Professor," Hermione said, "who are the prefects?"  
  
Rose smiled. "You and Harry."  
  
The two of them grinned widely. Fred and George then sparked an argument about prefects. They bickered for half an hour before the Weasleys and Hermione finally cleared out. Harry stayed in the common room. He collapsed into a chair next to her, watching the flames in the fireplace. Rose got the nerve to ask him what was bothering him.  
  
*Harry. What is it?*  
  
He shifted uneasily. *You told me you could remember Mum and Dad. Were you born before they were married?*  
  
*Yes."  
  
*Then can you remember their wedding?*  
  
*Yes. I was the junior bridesmaid. That wedding picture you have? I'm third to the left, starting with Mum.*  
  
*Then will you tell me what it was like?*  
  
She smiled. *Sure. Mum had a beautiful wedding dress. It had a fluffy skirt with a long train and gold trim. Her gold veil almost touched the hem. She was wearing a ruby and gold necklace shaped like a lion. The same lion was on their rings. Her bouquet was red and gold roses. We girls all wore long gold dresses with a silver sash and hem. We all had a red and gold rose tucked into our hair, each one of us.  
  
*Dad wore a white suit with gold trim. The boys all had silver suits with gold trim. It sounds really nasty-looking, but it was actually very nice.  
  
*I can still remember the song they danced to. Mum sang it to you whenever you cried. She taught it to me once. Would you like to hear it?*  
  
Harry silently nodded. Rose took a deep breath.  
  
"When the cold of winter comes, starless night will cover day, in the veiling of the sun, we will walk in bitter rain. But in dreams, I will hear your name, and in dreams, we will meet again." 


	6. Surprises

Disclaimer: Duh. If you think I am J.K. Rowling, you need your brain checked over.  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter Six  
  
At breakfast July 31, Rose seemed very quiet.  
  
When she went into the Great Hall, she sat next to the Weasleys instead of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. One Weasly in particular.  
  
"I swear, if she doesn't get her palms of Bill, I will retch," Ron announced.  
  
"What's wrong with you? Bill doesn't seem to mind," Hermione said. She was grinning like a maniac. "I think they look cute."  
  
"Hurl."  
  
"Would you grow up, Ron?"  
  
"Ron, he's got to start dating someday. How old is he? Rose turns twenty in October."  
  
Ron glowered at them. He hated losing arguments.  
  
"Think of what their kids would look like," Hermione said, staring at their hair. "Has every Weasley had red hair? And what did Rose do with hers?"  
  
Rose's hair did look very nice. It had looked like it was reddish-brown and curly when she arrived, but she had apparently washed and combed it. Her hair was auburn, and simply wavy. It fell down to her waist. She was wearing blue robes to set off her eyes.  
  
"Is Bill going to stay here for the year?" Hermione asked.  
  
"I think so. He got a year off."  
  
"I didn't know he could get a year off."  
  
"Quiet!"  
  
They looked like they were having a very important conversation. Suddenly, they got up and left the Hall. Hermione, Ron, and Harry followed. They were going to one of the empty dungeons. The trio hid outside and listened.  
  
"How are your newest phoenixes going?"  
  
"I'm not sure if they know they're phoenixes yet. But they'll figure it out at the first Burning Day."  
  
"It might come as a bit of a shock to him."  
  
"He's used to shocks. Think about where he came from."  
  
Bill laughed. "Of course. And how are you doing, Unicorn?"  
  
"I'm doing fine, Bill."  
  
They stopped talking. When Harry and Hermione chanced a peek from behind the wall (Ron was covering his eyes) they saw Ron's older brother and Harry's older sister kissing.  
  
They grabbed Ron and ran all the way to Gryffindor Tower. When they finally got there, they collapsed into the overstuffed chairs and laughed until they had tears running down their faces.  
  
"Rose and Bill snogging," Ron said faintly. "Not something I need to see again."  
  
"Let's see, Ron," Hermione sniggered. "If they get married, that makes you Harry's brother-in-law."  
  
Harry looked shocked. "She told you?"  
  
"Of course she told us! Actually, Bill told us," Ron said.  
  
"Bill knows?"  
  
"Obviously."  
  
"How long is it possible to keep a secret around here?"  
  
"Factor in Fred, George, the Slytherins, Rita Skeeter, Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, Rose, and Rita Skeeter, about a week."  
  
"Then I suppose that it'll be no surprise to you, Mr. Weasley, that I know that you were dropping Dungbombs in Snape's dungeons last night."  
  
They jumped. Rose had come in with Bill.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Rose smiled. That was one of the advantages of being a teacher. Instead of the caught, she was the catcher.  
  
"And you'll be pleased to know that my best friends from Salem are Alexa and Alice Bernard. I believe that Fred and George have told you about them?"  
  
Ron went pale. Rose's supersensitive hearing zoomed in on his whisper to Harry and Hermione.  
  
"They were Fred and George's pen pals for years. Identical twins. They went to the Salem Witch's Academy. The only pranksters more evil than my brothers."  
  
Rose's smile widened. She was going to enjoy this.  
  
"And you will be absolutely thrilled to know that they will be visiting Hogwarts this year. They recently graduated along with me."  
  
Rose sensed that Harry wanted to talk to her. She opened their connection.  
  
*Yes, Harry?*  
  
*You were best friends with the Salem equivalent of Fred and George?*  
  
*I like to play pranks. My professors learned that the hard way. So did Fred and George's.*  
  
She switched back to spoken language. "Mr. Weasly, you have lucked out. I just came up to bring Harry down to the Great Hall. There are some people there waiting for him."  
  
Ron let out the breath he had been holding.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Harry had agreed to be blindfolded. Rose was leading him into the Great Hall.  
  
*Can I take off the blindfold yet?*  
  
*No! I'll tell you when! Stop asking!*  
  
Harry felt himself being steered down several steps. He had a feeling everyone was grinning like idiots.  
  
*Now you can take off the blindfold.*  
  
Harry untied the knot keeping the blindfold on, and...  
  
"SURPRISE!"  
  
Harry looked around the Great Hall. It had been transformed. Streamers were hanging from the enchanted ceiling. There were white tablecloths with colorful stripes on all the tables. But the thing he noticed most was the people.  
  
Almost everyone he knew was there. Sirius, Lupin, the Weasleys, all of his teachers (except Professor Binns, of course), the Grangers, and to his surprise, Dobby.  
  
"Happy birthday, Harry!" Molly Weasley and half a dozen house-elves came forward holding a cake the shape and size of a lion. It was charmed to change colors, red and gold.  
  
"Oi! Harry! Presents!" the twins called. They were sitting near a gigantic mountain of gifts stacked onto the teachers' table. "Here's ours!" Fred tossed it to Harry, who tore it open. Inside he found two Nose-Biting Teacups, five Dungbombs, a large bag of Cockroach Clusters, and ten Fillibuster's Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks. They had each scrawled a note:  
  
Since this is our last year, we figured you and Ronnykins could take over for us. Fred  
  
Get Alice and Alexa for us. George  
  
Harry then proceeded to open all the presents, taking him an hour. He got textbooks and potion ingredients for this year from all his teachers. Ron had bought him a hundred-pound bag of assorted candy from Hogsmeade. Bill gave him some foreign wizarding currency, some of which had pictures that changed every ten seconds. Charlie had found a dragon hide in Romania and had made him three capes, five sets of gloves, a hat, and shoes for him. Mrs. Weasley had knit him five pairs of socks and charmed each of them. One pair had a picture of him on a broomstick, which chased a Snitch, another had stripes that changed color, another, polka dots that did the same, one pair looked like Charlie had given her some of that dragon hide, and another changed colors from red to gold and had the Hogwarts crest on them. Ginny had given him a charm to clip onto his Firebolt that would make it fly faster. But it was Hermione's present that was the most creative.  
  
"It's a book," he said after opening it, not sure how to respond.  
  
"Read the cover," she said, nearly dancing with excitement.  
  
"The Potter Family: A Biography, by Hermione Granger," he said in awe. "Hermione, this is huge! How long have you been working on this?"  
  
"Just two months. I looked up every Potter ever, starting with your hundredth great-grandparents. I was surprised at how many famous people you were related to."  
  
Harry caught Ron kicking Hermione under the table after she said that.  
  
"It has illustrations. Some of them are actual photos." She seemed very proud.  
  
Harry turned to the last three presents. One was from Sirius, one, Lupin, the third, Hagrid. He opened Lupin's first. It was a book about werewolves. Harry grinned at him and added the book to the mountain beside him. Next, he picked up Hagrid's. Inside was a book about phoenixes. Harry looked up at him, puzzled.  
  
"Summat I've gotta show yeh, after yeh finish with the rest o' these presents."  
  
Harry smiled and nodded. He picked up the last present, from Sirius. It was a leather-bound book with no title. He opened it, and his mum, dad, sister, godfather, and a woman he didn't recognize waved at him.  
  
"That's Arabella Figg. Your godmother," Sirius said, pointing at the woman.  
  
After Harry opened all his presents, they dug into the cake. It turned out to be chocolate. Mrs. Weasley had insisted on making it herself, to the dismay of the house-elves. Charlie entertained them with stories about the dragons he'd seen in Romania. He was telling them about how one of the people he worked with had gotten his toupee burnt off by a dragon when Harry realized Hagrid was holding something behind his back.  
  
"Hagrid," he said nervously. He was afraid he'd bred another creature. "Hagrid, what're you holding behind your back?"  
  
Hagrid nervously pulled his hand from behind his back and gently opened his massive fist to reveal three red and gold eggs the size of a baby's head.  
  
"Phoenix eggs," he mumbled. "Rose gave 'em ter me and I didn't need 'em, so..."  
  
"Thanks, Hagrid!" Harry said enthusiastically. He handed one of the eggs to Ron, and another to Hermione. "I only need one." They both looked thrilled.  
  
Harry looked around to show Rose, but realized she wasn't there. He excused himself to put the egg in his room and went up to Gryffindor Tower, where she would probably be.  
  
He was right. She was sitting in the common room staring into the fire.  
  
*Rose, what's wrong?*  
  
She jumped. *Oh, hello, Harry. I see Hagrid gave you Starsong's kids.*  
  
*What's wrong?*  
  
She sighed. *Nothing.* Her expression suddenly brightened. *Oh, I forgot! I got you something, too. Hold on.* She ran up the staircase. Harry sat down into a chair to wait. When she came back down, she was holding several packages to her chest.  
  
*Open this one first.*  
  
It was a perch for his phoenix. There was a nest for it before it hatched and a box of phoenix grooming supplies.  
  
*They're a dreadful nuisance to groom. They won't let you stop until every feather is perfect. But they get along with owls perfectly. Hedwig will like it.*  
  
The second package was a wand care kit.  
  
*Heard you didn't have anything to polish your wand with. What's your core?*  
  
*Phoenix feather.*  
  
*Hm. Same as Dad. Mum and I both have got unicorn hair.*  
  
The third package was small. Harry opened it slowly. He somehow knew that whatever was inside, it was important.  
  
There was a tiny red box with gold handwriting. The writing said simply "Happy fifteenth birthday, Harry! Rose, Lily, and James."  
  
"Where did you get this?" Harry asked.  
  
"I pulled it out of The Box. That was the box Mum and Dad put all of the heirlooms that would pass to us later in life, at a set time." She sighed. "That's Mum's handwriting. Open the box, now. Gently, it's really old."  
  
Harry carefully cracked the lid. A scent of cinnamon wafted out. Inside, on a red and gold silk padding, was a gold ring. Harry looked quizzically up at his sister.  
  
"Keep it safe," Rose said. "Keep it somewhere very safe."  
  
Suddenly the door banged open. Hermione and Ron stood in the doorway looking panicked.  
  
"What's wrong?" Rose asked.  
  
"Look!" Hermione said breathlessly.  
  
She shoved a note at her. She read it quickly before handing it to Harry.  
  
The littlest Weasley is out of your grasp. 


	7. Guests

Disclaimer: Duh. I am obviously not J.K. Rowling. If you think I am, I know a good psychiatrist who would be glad to accommodate you.  
  
Thank you all for your wonderful reviews! Please review all of my chapters; I get very excited when I see a good review!  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter Seven  
  
Harry was still in shock at the beginning of the year. Rose was worried about him. She didn't understand why it was Ginny that was taken. She kept asking herself why Voldemort wanted the smallest of the new phoenixes. She didn't know why he didn't want Harry, or her, or Ron or Hermione. Why Ginny? Maybe it was her talent at potions. He might need some potion...no, Wormtail and Voldemort were much better making potions than that fourteen- year-old-girl. She could think of no other reason except for Harry.  
  
Harry had been very...distracted ever since Ginny had been kidnapped. In her class, at least. She had tried to listen to what he was thinking about, but every time, she felt like she was hitting a wall and felt a wave of nausea that meant she would have a bad reaction if she kept pushing in. So she settled for just trying to help him. She taught about creatures and curses he knew plenty about. This year was rather a review year, as they had O.W.L.s at the end. She tried her hardest to get through to him, but nothing worked.  
  
She persuaded Severus to sub for her one Friday (she knew he wouldn't mind) and helped Professor McGonagall teach her lesson on the rare multi-Animagi.  
  
"Does anyone know what multi-Animagi are?" Professor McGonagall asked the class. As usual, Hermione's hand was the only hand that went up.  
  
"Yes, Ms. Granger?"  
  
"Multi-Animagi is a rare form of Animagi who can transform themselves into more than just the simple one creature. It can be inherited. There have only ever been five."  
  
"And do you know who those five were?"  
  
"Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, and Salazar Slytherin. I could not find a name for the fifth." It sounded like that made her unhappy.  
  
"Very good. Ten points to Gryffindor. Now although you could not find the name of the third, I could. She happens to be Professor Creek."  
  
The class gasped. Rose grinned. This was going to be fun.  
  
"She has agreed to demonstrate her extraordinary abilities for us." Professor McGonagall proceeded to walk to her desk and sat down.  
  
"Multi-Animagi can turn into non-magical creatures as well as magical ones of any size."  
  
Rose turned herself into first a butterfly, then an eagle, and then a lion. The class gasped and applauded. She turned herself back into a human.  
  
"I'm not done yet," she said, grinning.  
  
She proceeded to turn herself into a phoenix, then a Unisus. The girls loved the Unisus. The last change she made was into a small dragon. She flew around the room a few times and perched on Draco Malfoy's head. While she sat there, she "accidentally" opened a connection to his mind.  
  
*This class is so stupid. All we do is watch the Weasel make an idiot of himself and watch Mudblood show off. And Potter just sits there and thinks about his lost Weasel girl while his older sister shows off.*  
  
Rose took off and flew up to her room. How the...Malfoy knew she was Harry's sister? His father must have told him. Great slimy git. What she'd like to do to the both of them...and Harry was in love with Ginny? It certainly made sense. And there was no doubt she loved him back. She had tapped into a few of her thoughts.  
  
Rose had reached her room. She needed a break. Well, it was Friday, October 15. That meant Alex and Ally would be coming for her birthday on Sunday today. It shouldn't take long, she thought. They just have to Apparate to just outside Hogwarts territory and then ride their brooms to Hogwarts. They had Firebolts; you needed to if you played on the American national team. She sighed. The good old days. Too bad Seeker was taken here. Suddenly, she saw two brooms in this distance. "Als!" she yelled. She realized that they couldn't hear her, so she opened the window and jumped on her Firebolt. She caught up with them halfway.  
  
"Ally! Alex! I missed you!" She noticed that they had identical crooked noses. "What happened to your faces?" she asked.  
  
"Those nasty Afghan Beaters smashed their clubs into our noses. So we rigged their brooms with Dungbombs," Alice Bernard said with a nasty grin.  
  
"They exploded in the middle of the match. We won, thanks to the fact that the Dungbomb exploded in their Seeker's eye so he couldn't see the Snitch," her sister Alexa said.  
  
"You two are nasty!" Rose laughed. "Come on, we can talk in my room." They flew through the open window, threw their brooms on racks they conjured and sprawled across the couches. They sat and talked about how they were doing, and how the Als were never going to get a decent job if they continued getting their noses smashed by those cheating Afghans, and how Rose would never play Seeker again of she didn't quit her job. They were arguing about whether or not Keeper was a good position when Ron, Hermione, and Harry started banging on the door.  
  
"Who's that?" Alex asked.  
  
"Some students of mine." Rose said, and opened the door.  
  
The trio nearly fell onto her carpet. As soon as they had gotten up, they started asking her questions.  
  
"Where were you?"  
  
"How come you weren't in class?"  
  
"Snape terrorized us!"  
  
Rose raised one eyebrow. "I was not in class because I was demonstrating the multi-Animagi to Mother's classes. Obviously, you weren't paying attention. And I wasn't in the other classes because I had two greet my friends, Alex and Ally." Ron went pale as a sheet.  
  
"Alice and Alexa Bernard?" he croaked.  
  
"The very same," Alice told him.  
  
"I'm...uh...going to get the twins," Ron said and ran down the stairs.  
  
The crowd gathered in Rose's sitting room just stood there for a few minutes, the suddenly burst into laughter.  
  
It was good to see Harry laugh. This was the first Rose had seen her little brother smile since his birthday.  
  
When they calmed down, they introduced themselves.  
  
"Alex, Ally, this is Hermione Granger and this is Harry Potter. The redhead who just ran sown the stairs is Ronald Weasly."  
  
"Ronald Weasly as in the brother of Frederick and George Weasly?" Alex said.  
  
"The very same."  
  
"Then he'd better really get them!"  
  
They laughed again.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Harry was actually enjoying himself. At first he felt guilty, but after talking with the twins for a while, he relaxed. The twins were very pleasant to be around. Although they acted much like Fred and George, they looked almost completely opposite. They had long blonde hair and no freckles at all, although their skin was tanned from living in California. They played the same Quidditch positions as the Weasly twins, except they played on a much better team.  
  
"The national team?! You play Beaters for the national team?"  
  
"Yep. Alex and Ally Bernard. Alex is number five, I'm number six."  
  
"Bloody hell!"  
  
Ron had returned with the twins.  
  
"Fred?" Alex said.  
  
"George?" Ally said.  
  
"That's me," they said at the same time. They all laughed nervously.  
  
"No Dungbombs concealed in pockets?" Alex asked.  
  
"Nose-Biting teacups up your sleeve?" George said.  
  
"Nothing." Ally and George said at the same time.  
  
Hermione interrupted their conversation. "Pardon me for interrupting your romantic exchange, but why are you two here?"  
  
All twins jumped.  
  
"We, uh, we came for Rose's birthday," Alex said, stepping on Ally's foot under the table.  
  
"Yeah, her birthday's Sunday and we said we'd drop by. We were in her year at the Salem Witch's Institute. We haven't seen her since the Quidditch World Cup last year."  
  
Harry could tell something was up. He probed into their memories (he had been practicing on the Slytherins) to find out.  
  
It took him a few minutes. They had hidden the memory of why they came very deep. Too deep for it to be accidental. He dug harder. There! There it was! They had come because.........they knew something about Ginny.  
  
He broke the connection is shock.  
  
"What do you know about Ginny?" he yelled.  
  
The Bernards looked shocked.  
  
"How did you...."  
  
"He's one," Rose said.  
  
They gasped. "You mean level..."  
  
"Yes, Alex," Rose said warningly.  
  
The Bernards turned back to Harry. "We know exactly where Ginny is," Alice said.  
  
"We're her two of her Secret-Keepers," Alexa added.  
  
Rose sighed. "We'd better tell them everything. Sit down. We need to tell you about the Order of the Phoenix."  
  
"Who's that?"  
  
"I'm the Order. So are the Bernards," Rose said. "So are you." 


	8. The Order of the Phoenix

Disclaimer: Just look in another chapter. I am not J.K. Rowling. ::grr:: I am tired of writing this. From now on, remember that the disclaimer is in The Guardian through The Bernards Arrive.  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter Eight  
  
Rose felt terrible.  
  
Absolutely bloody terrible.  
  
Let the bloody demons of the Salem cemetery eat Dumbledore.  
  
Harry was not going to be happy that she hadn't told this to him when she met him. But she didn't have a choice. Even telling him now would be dangerous. But if she didn't tell him, he'd just dig through the Bernard twins' memories until he found the information he needed. And that could kill him and the twins. Physically and/or emotionally and/or mentally. Oy.  
  
So she had no choice but to tell him. And the Weasleys. And Hermione. She saw serious therapy for herself in the future.  
  
"The Order of the Phoenix is a select group of powerful witches and wizards," she began. "It was formed twenty-five years ago by Professor Dumbledore, Sirius Black, Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Minerva McGonagall, Alastor Moody, Mundungus Fletcher, Arabella Figg, and James and Lily Potter. They Phoenixes' job was to fight Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters.  
  
"They went on to establish an academy for future Phoenixes hidden inside Hogwarts' lessons. The spells and potions you learned would all be helpful in being an Auror.  
  
"There are four levels of the Order. They are, in lowest to highest, White, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. There are levels before that for the Phoenixes-in- training. Your level is determined by the amount of power you have. It can increase, but decreases very rarely.  
  
"The only Phoenixes there have ever been before now are the founders. But starting around when I started to Hogwarts, the training began again. That was because I knew Voldemort would rise again. Happy day." She wasn't sure how to explain this. "I have the power to predict future things. So do you, Harry, but you haven't trained your skill and can only see past and present happenings. You go to sleep, and have a very real dream, usually about Voldemort. You wake up with your scar hurting. That was how I saw Lord Voldemort's uprising when I was in the first year. I notified Dumbledore, who reinstated the training. New Phoenixes were selected a lot starting in your second year, when I started seeing what Voldemort would do once he came back. I selected Ron, the Weasley twins, the Bernard twins, Bill, Hermione, Ginny, and you, Harry. There are a few other names that you would not recognize. Harry, the only reason I am telling you and your friends this is because everyone in this room is level Gold. You can feel the magic emanating from this room from literally fifty miles away. Any one of us could perform Avada Kedavra without a wand."  
  
The audience of her speech looked like they all wanted to know the answer to the same question. "Ron, what is it?"  
  
"But why Ginny? She's the youngest of all of us. Why would Voldemort want her?"  
  
"Unless I am strongly mistaken, I believe it is Harry's feelings for her." Harry blushed to the tips of his ears. Rose smirked very subtly. "Voldemort is using her as bait to get Harry. She is also a Gold, so he is probably getting considerable power, too."  
  
"Professor..." Hermione began.  
  
"The part about the Secret-Keepers is that each one of us is the Secret- Keeper for another. Alex is technically Ginny's Secret-Keeper, but she told Ally in case she is killed. They know where she is, but we can't get to it. The Death Eaters used a Shield Charm to create a sort of force field around her."  
  
"So we'll never get to her?" Harry whispered.  
  
Alex looked nervously at Rose. Rose nodded.  
  
"There is one way," Alex said. "But it's highly dangerous for both the wizards and witches working it and the one they are trying to free. It requires ten Golds and their rings."  
  
"Their rings?" Hermione asked.  
  
"There are ten rings that the original Phoenixes prepared for something like this. They are colored red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white, silver, and gold. Each wizard performing the Rainbow Spell (that's the name of the spell) gets one ring. They are pre-assigned to a Gold that has enough power to perform the Rainbow. They form a circle and place their hands on a magical object belonging to the one they are trying to recover. Their wand is preferred. They say an incantation at exactly the same time. If they do it right, the person should appear in the middle of them. If they do it wrong, they all die. There's no margin for error."  
  
"Who are the Golds that can perform the Rainbow?"  
  
Ally was talking now. "The red ring belongs to Fred, and the orange one to George. The yellow ring is mine, and the green one is Alex's."  
  
"The blue ring is Parvati Patil's, and the purple belongs to her sister Padma. The black ring belongs to Ron and the white to Hermione."  
  
"What about the gold and silver rings?"  
  
"They belong to you and me, Harry. The gold is yours, the silver is mine," Rose said.  
  
"Wow," Hermione said. "But if we're so powerful, why haven't we noticed?"  
  
"You all have in your own ways," Rose responded. "Hermione, you are the top student at Hogwarts. Ron, those voices you were hearing weren't your imagination. Those were people's thoughts. And Harry, you've always been just behind Hermione. The twins have always been too good at hiding their pranking supplies for it not to be magical."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Harry couldn't believe he had the ability to get Ginny and hadn't noticed. He didn't care how dangerous it was; he wanted to do the Rainbow Spell.  
  
"Rose, do the Patil twins know?"  
  
"Yes, Harry. They've known since they were ten. I told their parents, they told their kids."  
  
"Then couldn't we start really training?"  
  
Rose looked thoughtful. "Yes, I suppose we could. But why do you want to?"  
  
Harry felt her probing into his thoughts.  
  
"I agree." She switched to telepathy.  
  
*I do think we should perform the Rainbow Spell. But I'm not going to force anyone into it. They all know that it could kill them.*  
  
*Don't you two dare leave me out of this!*  
  
The connection nearly broke in shock.  
  
*Hermione?!* Harry said. *How did you figure out how to do this?*  
  
*I found out how when I was eight. I haven't seen anyone else who could do it before, but I learned how to tell when they were. Your face goes blank and you shut your eyes.*  
  
*Really?*  
  
*Yes,* said a third voice.  
  
*Ron? You, too?*  
  
*I didn't know I could.*  
  
*You know, why don't we just sit here and wait for everyone else to join?* Harry said.  
  
*I agree. The Bernards already know how,* Rose said. *The rest of them should figure out in about five...four...three...two...one...*  
  
The four friends suddenly felt four new minds in the connection. After everyone had figured out who was who, Rose told them her and Harry's opinion on the Rainbow Spell.  
  
*Harry and I think that it would be best if we attempted the Rainbow Spell. If any of you disagree, we'll call it off.*  
  
*Not a chance.*  
  
*I want my sister back!*  
  
*What's life without her?*  
  
*I am NOT letting Voldemort sit there and sap away her power, even if she is a bit of a pain at times.*  
  
*I'm in.*  
  
*Me, too.*  
  
*Now we just have to ask the Patil twins,* Harry said.  
  
*No need,* said another voice.  
  
*We already know. We want her back, she's fun,* said another.  
  
*Apparently, it's unanimous. Training will begin tomorrow at the Lake after classes,* Rose proclaimed. *We will perform the Rainbow Spell in six weeks.* 


	9. A Proposal

Please review this chapter! I worked on it for a long time, and I got very very very excited over it! I shrieked like crazy and acted even more of an insane Gryffindork that usual. My parents and sister kind of edged away. ( Tell me if you approve of "The Match!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter Nine  
  
Rose and the Bernard twins stood by the lake with the two other sets of twins and Ron, Hermione and Harry. They had settled on speaking only telepathically to avoid being overheard.  
  
*Today we are going to teach you how to perform a charm related to the Rainbow Spell,* Rose said in a businesslike tone. *Although it is not nearly as difficult as the Rainbow Spell, it is still quite hard. It involves altering a Patronus. Are all of you capable of making a Patronus?*  
  
*Yes,* they said in unison. Harry was very surprised. He had thought that he was the only student at Hogwarts who could conjure a decent Patronus.  
  
*Good. On the count of three, I want everyone to create their best Patronus. One...two...three.*  
  
"Expecto Patronum!"  
  
Various shapes burst out of everyone's wands. Harry focused all of his thoughts on the happiest moment he could think of - finding out he had a sister. His stag floated out of his wand and joined the other animals on the banks of the lake. Suddenly, Harry knew what to do next. He and everyone else around him were chanting and incantation. The Patroni by the lake began to change. They shone brighter, and turned gold. Suddenly, they dove in the lake. The crowd of people on the bank continued to hold them up.  
  
About a minute later, they came back to the shore carrying something on their backs. At first it looked like a stick, but as they got closer, Harry realized it was a wand.  
  
Ginny's wand.  
  
Rose ran to grab the wand before her Unisus Patronus dropped it. As soon as the wand was in her hand, all the Patronus disappeared. The ten on the shore collapsed in relief.  
  
*We've gotten one of the only things we need for the Rainbow Spell. You all did very well. I didn't expect you to get it right on the first try. I wasn't sure how well you could receive the information I transmitted. Now go back to the castle. I want you all to rest for an hour, and have some chocolate. Or Mother will be after my blood,* Rose said.  
  
*Which mother?* Hermione asked somberly, but you could see the smile playing at the edge of her mouth.  
  
*Which do you think? Now I was serious. Here's the chocolate, now GO!*  
  
The crowd hurried up the steps.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Rose had had more than one reason for dismissing the training session. The first she had said. She was sure that they were all exhausted. Her first pre-Rainbow had been in a much larger group, and she had blacked out after she finished. Her second reason she had not wanted to tell any of her students.  
  
She had a date with Bill.  
  
He had promised to take her to a fancy restaurant in Hogsmeade. He had hinted about an early birthday present for her.  
  
She ran up to her room and changed into some nice robes, deep red satin with a gold cape. She rummaged through her jewelry chest for a few minutes, trying on several items, before she found the perfect set. She slipped on her mother's ruby and gold earrings and the necklace she had inherited when she turned fifteen. Lily Potter had worn it at her wedding. It was the one shaped like a lion. She smiled and started working on her hair. There was a complicated knot she had learned from her mother. She had used it on her first dates with all her boyfriends and on a few special ones with Bill. She had just tucked in the tip of her hair when she finished.  
  
"Rose?"  
  
"I'm almost finished." She grabbed her wand and slipped it into her pocket, then took the arm Bill offered her.  
  
As they walked through the Hogwarts grounds, they talked about some of her students and debated about where Fred and George should set up the joke shop they were going to make. It took them about ten minutes to get to The Phoenix's Tail, the Hogsmeade restaurant. They placed their orders, then sat and talked about their families.  
  
"How's Harry? Is he all right with the news?"  
  
"He's fine. In fact, he's driving me out of my mind trying to find out who he's a Secret-Keeper for."  
  
"Well, who is it?"  
  
"Me. Of course. I wanted it to be Ron or Hermione, but Grandpa insisted."  
  
"Does he know you call him that?"  
  
"No. But Mother, Daddy, Mom, and Father know I call them those names. When I list them I have to call them that, because Mother and Mother and Daddy and Daddy sound weird. But that's what I call them most of the time."  
  
Their order arrived, interrupting their conversation. They talked about Rose's curriculum (unfortunately dull) and students (ranging from dull to near insane), and how she was getting along with the Slytherins (badly). They talked for two hours before they left the restaurant.  
  
After they left, they went for a walk around the edges of Hogsmeade. They found a nice little garden someone had made in the forest with a gazebo. They sat and talked some more.  
  
"I just love the fall, don't you?"  
  
"You know what it reminds me of?"  
  
"What, Bill?"  
  
"You."  
  
"Don't be silly. Anyways, people always tell me I'm more of a summer," Rose said teasingly, toying with Bill's earring.  
  
"Mum hates it, you know."  
  
"The earring?"  
  
"And the hair. She was impossibly pleased when I cut it."  
  
"I like it," Rose said softly.  
  
"I like your hair," Bill said. "In fact, I love it."  
  
"Just the hair?"  
  
"Okay, all of you."  
  
"You haven't seen it all."  
  
"You're teasing me."  
  
"So what if I am?"  
  
Bill stuck his hand into his pocket. Rose started feeling the butterflies.  
  
"Rose?" he said softly.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"You know I love you, don't you?"  
  
"I didn't before about three seconds ago."  
  
He pulled his hand out of his pocket. He was holding a small, scarlet velvet box. He popped it open, revealing an elaborate ring.  
  
"Will you marry me?"  
  
*~*~*  
  
Hermione, watching from the forest, invisible, squealed and followed them. Harry and Ron absolutely HAD to know this!!! She bolted up through the entrance hall, up the staircases, and to the Fat Lady.  
  
"Bursting bubotobers!" she panted. The Fat Lady opened, and Hermione tumbled in.  
  
Ron and Harry were sitting in the common room.  
  
"Hermione, where were you? We've been looking for you everywhere!" Ron said.  
  
"I went down to Hogsmeade to buy a present for Rose's birthday, and I saw her and Bill going out of The Phoenix's Tail, that fancy restaurant. I followed them into the forest and - oh, Harry - he PROPOSED!"  
  
"WHAT?!" Ron exclaimed.  
  
"She said yes!!!" Hermione squealed.  
  
Dead silence. Then two identical heads popped out from behind two of the chairs.  
  
"OhmiGodJesustheVirginMaryandallthesaints!" Alex shrieked.  
  
"I wanna see her!" Ally squealed. They bolted out of the portrait hole down to Rose's room. Harry and Ron rolled their eyes.  
  
"That's great!" Harry said. "They really like each other. Hey, Ron, what's the matter?" Ron had a funny look on his face. It looked as if he was confused and amused at the same time.  
  
"Harry, that makes us brothers!"  
  
They laughed.  
  
*~*~*  
  
In her room, Rose was toying with the large ring on her ring finger. It was quite beautiful. It was shaped like a Unisus, with a diamond body. Its tail and mane were rubies, and it had emerald hooves. The wings were sapphires. The band was made to look like a vine of entwined gold and silver, complete with minute leaves. It had been enchanted to fly around the room when tapped. She was wondering how Bill had managed to afford it when the Bernard twins burst into her room.  
  
"We just found out!" they shrieked. "Let us see it!" They made a wild grab for her hand, but Rose used her powers to sit on her hand just a little bit too fast.  
  
"Oh, using your power for evil rather than good, eh?" Alice said.  
  
"I must not be the only one if you two already know I'm engaged! Who told you?"  
  
"Emione or whatever her name is."  
  
"Hermione. The little...she must have followed us! I can't believe she knows how to make herself invisible!"  
  
"When were you going to make the announcement?"  
  
"Sunday."  
  
"Can we use our powers for evil and zip it to Sunday so we can shriek obsessively with the Patils about it?" The Bernards had been getting along very well with both sets of twins.  
  
"NO! They can wait!"  
  
"They probably already know, at the volume Hermione was shrieking it."  
  
Rose sighed. "Well, could you two please gossip tomorrow morning? I'm tired."  
  
"Sure," they said in unison, and bounced out of the room.  
  
Rose changed into her nightgown and collapsed onto her bed. She fell asleep almost instantly, and began to dream.  
  
She was at her wedding with Bill. They were saying their vows. Rose looked into the crowd and saw the other Golds, and the founders of the Order. They were dressed up, and smiling at her. She smiled back and looked down, and saw she was wearing her mother's wedding gown, and Bill was in her father's suit. Tears came to her eyes. Bill and her were about to kiss, but suddenly there was a flash of light. She heard an evil laugh, and saw Harry and the other young Golds writhing with pain on the floor. "NO!" Rose screamed, but Voldemort just laughed. He pointed his wand at her, but Bill jumped in front. He fell to the floor. Voldemort pointed his wand at her again, and there was another flash of green light.  
  
In their separate beds, Harry and Rose sat up, scars burning, breathing hard. 


	10. Family Matters

Thank you all for the wonderful reviews you sent me! I am sorry for taking so long to upload these few chapters, but I couldn't log in.  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter Ten  
  
Harry was striding to Professor Dumbledore's office under his Invisibility Cloak. He had learned to tell the headmaster whenever his scar hurt. It generally started twinging right before Voldemort showed up. But this wasn't a twinge. This was burning. It hadn't been this bad since Voldemort had touched him last year.  
  
He reached the stone gargoyle, but found that someone was already there. He could feel them there, but he couldn't see them.  
  
"Potter, Rosemary Lillian, Gold," the voice whispered.  
  
To Harry's surprise, the gargoyle sprung aside. Harry heard a quiet whispering sound, and the gargoyle sprang shut. Rose had special clearance to see Professor Dumbledore? Harry tried doing the same thing.  
  
"Potter, Harrison James, Gold," he tried. To his utter shock, the gargoyle leapt aside. Harry jumped in and ran up the staircase before it shut again. He could hear someone right in front of him. Probably Rose. Harry was careful to stay a little behind the spot he supposed she was on. Every few seconds, he heard a slapping sound. Suddenly, she stopped. The wooden door to the Professor's office was straight ahead. Harry heard a knock.  
  
"Come in, Rose," Dumbledore said.  
  
The door opened. As Rose pulled off her cloak and walked through, Harry followed. Dumbledore looked up.  
  
"Harry, please remove your Invisibility Cloak. I do hate talking to people I cannot see."  
  
Harry reluctantly pulled off his cloak. Rose stared.  
  
"I thought Mum was the only one with a cloak."  
  
"I thought Dad was."  
  
"Rose, what did you want to talk to me about?"  
  
"I had another dream, Professor. I was...uh...at my wedding."  
  
"Rose, I know about your engagement to Bill Weasley. If Harry knows, I certainly do. Go on."  
  
"Well, I was getting married to Bill. I remember that all of the other Golds were there. I was wearing Mum's gown and the jewelry she wore, and Bill was wearing Dad's suit. We were saying our vows, and suddenly there was a big flash of light."  
  
"Voldemort came in," Harry said. "He put the Cruciatus curse on all of us new Golds. I kept hearing Rose screaming 'NO!' at him. I turned my head and saw him try to kill her."  
  
"But Bill jumped in the way," Rose finished. "I saw him fall down in front of me, and then Voldemort turned his wand on me. There was a huge flash of light and I woke up." The last few words, "I woke up," Rose and Harry said in unison. They stared at each other.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Dumbledore was surprised. He had not expected them to advance their connection within only a few months of meeting. This could only mean that Rose was doing something she shouldn't.  
  
He looked at her sternly. "Rose, are you training the Golds?"  
  
She looked innocent. "No! Of course, I didn't, Professor! Why ever would I want to do that?"  
  
"To rescue Virginia Weasly."  
  
"Why would I do that? I barely know the girl."  
  
"Miss Granger does. Ronald does. Your brother does."  
  
"And?"  
  
"Rosemary, dear, whenever you talk like that I know you are lying. Now what are you training the other Golds to do?"  
  
She looked defeated. "The Rainbow Spell. Before you say anything, I warned them about the dangers, and the vote was unanimous. They want their friend back."  
  
Dumbledore stared into her eyes. *Then you have all of the supplies?* he thought.  
  
*We performed the Patromulti yesterday.*  
  
Dumbledore was relieved. Rose was well trained for something like this, as long as she had the wand. The rings could be supplied.  
  
"Well, I suppose it will be all right. Just Rose...please be careful. Remember the Pettigrew incident."  
  
Rose winced and walked from the room. Harry followed, but not before pulling on his Invisibility Cloak.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Rose sighed. If she had another dream, she was enchanting herself. It was getting so bad she only got about four hours of sleep at night. But her Grandpa insisted she keep having them. He said "they will warn us about the horrors Lord Voldemort will unleash if he rises again." Well, he'd risen again, so couldn't she please have a normal sleep cycle?  
  
Her scar started aching again. She whacked it hard. Now that was something she could enchant.  
  
*So that was what I heard earlier.*  
  
Rose whirled around with her palm outstretched. She felt it connect with and invisible arm with a loud smack.  
  
*You little...I can take points off Gryffindor.*  
  
*You didn't have to hit me.*  
  
*It was the only way I could find where you were. So I could do this.*  
  
She groped around where her hand had connected and pulled. Suddenly, she could see her brother, Invisibility Cloak in his hand.  
  
"Hey, what'd you do that for?"  
  
*Shh! If anyone finds us, I'll just tell them I was walking you back from detention with me.*  
  
*Like they'll fall for that.*  
  
*Daddy won't.*  
  
*Please don't call him that.*  
  
*Why? He practically is.*  
  
*I'm just not used to hearing Grease-Head be called Daddy by any former Gryffindor. Let's talk about something more cheerful...your birthday. What do you want?*  
  
*Sleep.*  
  
*Seriously.*  
  
*Candy, books, any magical gadgets you can find. I like everything.*  
  
*You were raised by Muggles, weren't you.*  
  
*No. I was raised by Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall. I'm famous within Hogwarts as being the only thing they've ever agreed on. I was just raised in an almost all-Muggle world.*  
  
*Almost?*  
  
*I only got to be a witch during the school year. I was a Muggle named Rebecca Laura Painter during the summer during my years in America.*  
  
*Who did you live with when you weren't at Hogwarts?*  
  
*I kind of went back and forth. I alternated between Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape, and Madame Pomfrey and Daddy. You don't mind if I call Sirius Daddy, do you?*  
  
*No. Just call the rest of them aunt and uncle. It sounds too weird to say Daddy Snape.*  
  
They laughed and almost immediately regretted it.  
  
"Mr. Potter. Rose."  
  
They had run right into Snape.  
  
*Oh, damn,* Rose said quickly to Harry, who promptly snorted.  
  
"I wonder what is so funny, Potter?"  
  
"I.....um..."  
  
Rose went the same shade as her hair, and not from embarrassment. She looked straight into his eyes. She knew how he could receive, but not send.  
  
*Severus, leave him alone.*  
  
He ignored her.  
  
"Do you think that detention would help you explain, Potter?"  
  
Rose was turning purple now.  
  
*Severus Snape, if you do not leave my brother alone I will make your day a living hell! Get back to your office!*  
  
He looked at her. "Rose, I have told you to watch your mouth many times before."  
  
Harry looked at her, his eyes big. *Spill it, Rose. What'd you threaten to do to him?*  
  
*This.*  
  
Rose looked at the hem of Snape's robes and muttered, "Locomoter mortis!" A flame of blue fire spread along the hem of his robes. He didn't notice, and continued to threaten Harry with detention for laughing. The fire was slowly spreading.  
  
"Perhaps, Potter, I could pump you full of Veritaserum to find out why you aren't in your room."  
  
Rose covered her grin with her hand. "Uh, Severus."  
  
He looked at her sharply. "Miss Potter, I told you to call me Professor."  
  
"Sorry, Professor. I was just going to point out that you might need that Veritaserum for something else." She pointed to his robes. He yelped and stomped on his hem, trying to put it out.  
  
*Harry, the best thing to know about your enemy is his greatest fear.*  
  
They laughed.  
  
*Rose, what's your greatest fear?*  
  
*You wouldn't be able to use it against me.*  
  
*Why? What is it? Water? Earthquakes? Dying?*  
  
She thought long and hard. Should she tell him what her fear was? It was only fair. She took a deep breath.  
  
*Harry, my greatest fear is losing someone close to me. I've already been through that three times. Almost five, with you jumping in Moldy Voldie's path and Sirius ending up in Azkaban. I value what I have left. All that's left is Uncle Severus, Uncle Sirius, Aunt Poppy, Aunt Minerva, and you. I haven't let anyone else get close to me since I lost you and Mum and Dad. I know I didn't truly lose you, but it was torture. It felt like I was there, every time you were there with Voldemort. It automatically strengthens our connection.*  
  
*What is this 'connection,' anyways? I still don't really understand it.*  
  
*That makes two of us. I know how to work it, but I don't know how it was created. But I do know that it has something to do with being the heir of a Hogwarts founder.*  
  
*But...we're not...*  
  
*You haven't looked at that family tree Miss Granger made you too closely, have you? The Potter family is a direct descendant from Godric Gryffindor. All of the Golds have been heirs. The Weasly family isn't directly related (thank goodness, if they were I couldn't marry Bill), but they are related to old Godric too. The Patil twins are heirs of Gryffindor on their dad's side, Ravenclaw on their mum's, and the Bernards are half Hufflepuff, half Gryffindor.*  
  
*I noticed that there are a lot of families in the Gold system.*  
  
*Yes. Families generally have more powerful magic than other people. Except your friend Hermione, she's different somehow. She's very powerful...but her family...it's all-Muggle...* Suddenly her eyes widened. *Harry, I've got to go to the library. She started walking in that direction at a brisk pace. *There's something I want to look up.*  
  
*What?*  
  
Rose whirled around suddenly. She looked very excited, with her hair falling out of its neat braid.  
  
*Harry, I think Hermione might be our cousin.* 


	11. Friends, Family, and the Bane of their E...

Disclaimer: See chap. 1  
  
Please review! I luv getting reviews!  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter 11  
  
*Rose, how could Hermione possibly be our cousin?*  
  
*The Evans had three sisters. You only know about Petunia and Lily. There was also a middle sister, Marigold. Lily was, of course, our mother. Lily was the only witch, but the fact that her sister was a witch was enough to give Marigold some magic. When she got out of high school, she got herself pregnant by a boyfriend of hers. Then she ran off and never talked to an Evans again. Or a Potter.*  
  
*Why do you think that Hermione is the daughter of this Muggle?*  
  
*The fact that when I looked through her memories, I found out her mother's name was Marigold. Is Marigold a common name?*  
  
*You looked through her memories?!*  
  
*She sent them to me. I looked through them later.*  
  
They had reached the library.  
  
*Harry, look for books by an Evans.*  
  
*But then they can only be by-*  
  
*Mum. Yes, I know. Lots of smart seventh or sixth years at Hogwarts makes a book for themselves like Hermione did for you. They're not usually so detailed, though.*  
  
They searched the library, looking through the cracked covers for a book by their mother. About ten minutes later, Harry had it.  
  
*Rose! I have it! It's called The Potter/Evans Family Tree. She knew she was getting married in sixth year?*  
  
*Yes. I was born the year before she wrote this. You were born five months after they married.*  
  
Harry picked up the book, expecting it to be very heavy, but it was barely a hundred pages. He dropped the book on a desk and opened it. The family tree was on the first page. Rose leaned over his shoulder and used her finger to point out people.  
  
*Let's see...there's Mum's dad...there's Mum...there's Marigold...there's her boyfriend...oh, they actually ended up getting married...there's her daughter.*  
  
They stared at the page. For what they saw confirmed Rose's and Harry's suspicions. The daughter of Marigold Elizabeth Evans and Matthew Joseph Granger was named Hermione Laura Granger.  
  
*Does she know?* Harry asked.  
  
*Know what?* came a thought from behind them.  
  
Rose and Harry whirled around and both slammed the book shut at the same time, so they both got their fingers pinched. Harry made sure Hermione wasn't listening, and then sent a thought to Rose.  
  
*Should we tell her? Because apparently she doesn't know.*  
  
*Of course we should tell her! Give me the book!*  
  
Harry diligently handed her the book.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Rose took a deep breath. This might take a while to explain. She decided to go for verbal.  
  
"Hermione, Harry and I have just discovered that you are our cousin."  
  
Hermione stared. "Come to think of it, I don't know my mother's maiden name."  
  
"That's because she tried to forget the Evans family - and the Potters. The middle Evans sister, Marigold, uh, got herself pregnant right after she got out of high school. She ran off with the boy and never contacted the Evans/Potter branch of the family again. Eventually she got married and went to college. Here, look."  
  
Rose turned to the first page of the book and showed her the tree. "See, there's your parents, there's you, there's our parents, there's us. Hey, that makes you Dudley's cousin, too!" Rose snorted and muttered something about "fat, ugly git." "And yes, Hermione, Dumbledore knows," correctly reading Hermione's face. *Now you'd better get back to Gryffindor Tower before Snape pops up again.*  
  
The two hurried off, while Rose stayed behind to look through the book. She had seen a page number written under Hermione's name. She turned to it. There was a picture of Hermione, waving, grinning with her new shortened teeth. There were a few paragraphs of script underneath.  
  
Hermione Laura Granger  
  
Hermione Laura Granger was born on September 18, 1980 to Marigold Elizabeth Evans and Matthew Joseph Granger. She has no known brother or sisters. She does, however, have a few cousins. Dudley Vernon Durseley, the son of Petunia Evans and Vernon Durseley, Rosemary Lillian Potter, daughter of James Potter and Lillian Evans, and Harrison James Potter, son of Lillian Evans and James Potter. They are all the same age except for Rose, who is five year older.  
  
Hermione's parents are dentists. However, this does not seem to affect Hermione's magic, as she is quite intelligent and is top of her class at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her best friends are Ronald Weasley, son of Molly Archer and Arthur Weasly, and her cousin Harry. Her greatest enemy is the Slytherin Draco Malfoy, son of Narcissa Jones and Lucius Malfoy. She is a Gryffindor.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Harry and Hermione were slowly walking back to Gryffindor Tower under Harry's cloak.  
  
*Did you know I was your cousin?*  
  
*Not until Rose hauled me into the library and pulled out that book. You don't look anything like an Evans.*  
  
*Everyone says I look like my mom, though. I guess my mom's just not an Evans-looking person.*  
  
*You do have the same nose as Rose. Pardon the rhyme.*  
  
*Really?*  
  
They walked in silence for a few more moments, before Hermione spoke again. Well, spoke in relative terms.  
  
*Why were you in the library anyways? Did Professor Potter pull you out of bed?*  
  
*She told me to ask you to call her Rose. And no, she didn't. We were both going somewhere and we bumped into each other. Literally.*  
  
*Where?*  
  
*Professor Dumbledore's office.*  
  
*Doesn't he sleep at night?*  
  
*I guess not.*  
  
*Can you tell me what you wanted to talk to him about?*  
  
*Yes. My scar hurt again. I had a weird dream. Rose was getting married. All the Golds and the teachers and the founders of the Order were all there. Rose and Bill were finishing their vows, but-*  
  
*You-Know-Who came into the church. He put the Cruciatus curse on everyone watching. He tried to kill Rose but Bill jumped in front of her. He fell, and the Dark Lord tried again. After the green light flashed, you wake up. I had that same dream.*  
  
*Okay, that's creepy. Let's go ask Ron if he had the dream.*  
  
They asked every one of the Golds about the dream. Each one of them had had the same one, at the same time.  
  
*What the bloody hell is going on?* a bemused Ron asked all the Golds, gathered in the Gryffindor common room.  
  
*It's called a Seeing,* Rose said. She had recently returned from the library. *A group of powerful witches and/or wizards have the same dream, at the same time of something that's going to happen in the future. They all wake up at the end. They are usually focused on all the people in the dream. But this one was different.*  
  
*Do you think Ginny could've had the dream too?* Ron asked anxiously. *I mean, she is a Gold.*  
  
Alex frowned. *I can't remember if I saw her in the crowd or not.* She screwed up her face. *She was there! I saw her in the front row, right next to Harry.*  
  
Everyone looked at Harry, who promptly turned red. *So? Let's get on with it,* he mumbled.  
  
*I told ya,* Rose said triumphantly. *I told you that's why he took her.* Suddenly, she stiffened. *What's that?* Everyone stopped to listen. They distinctly heard footsteps coming towards them. * Hide!* everyone hissed. They had just enough time to jump under the couches and chairs before Draco Malfoy burst into the common room with his parents.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Rose mentally snarled. She called the family many names Snape would have yelled at her for using.  
  
*What the hell are those slimy gits doing in the GRYFFINDOR COMMONS?!* she said.  
  
*Shh!* came the response from nine voices. The Malfoys had stopped. A new voice spoke. Draco's.  
  
*Father, I think the Golds are here.* His father responded.  
  
*Then shut up, fool! They can hear us!*  
  
Rose covered her head with her cloak and peered out. They were climbing the stairs to the rooms. Rose motioned to Harry under the couch to follow her. They threw on their cloaks and silently crept out.  
  
The Malfoys didn't stop at any of the rooms except the very last one, the prefects. But, of course, there was no one there. Harry was invisible and Hermione was hiding under a couch. Lucius swore, and then proceeded to the fifth year girls' dorm. Finding no Golds, they went to Rose's room just outside the portrait hole.  
  
But there was someone else there.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Hermione had "accidentally" ended up hiding under the same couch as Ron. She had also "accidentally" grabbed his hand. He didn't pull it away. Hermione would have to thank the Malfoys for actually doing her a favor.  
  
What the bloody hell am I thinking? she thought, using one of Ron's favorite expressions. I'm trapped under a couch, am probably going to get killed by Lucius Malfoy any minute, and all I can think about is how hot Ron looks when he's scared beyond belief? Well, he does, argued the other half of her brain. She was debating about whether or not to crawl out when she heard a scream from outside the portrait hole.  
  
From Rose's room. 


	12. An Auspicious Date

Disclaimer: See chapter 1  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter 12  
  
Rose heard Narcissa Malfoy scream as she and the rest of her family slid to the floor, Stunned. Rose was not happy.  
  
"Sirius Jonathon Black!" she screamed. "I told you NEVER to come up here! What if a student sees you? And what if those gits had seen you just now?"  
  
"First of all, Rosie, please take off your cloak. And second, I came to see you. Dumbledore owled me about your scar," he responded. "And you really don't look very pretty when you're angry. Your face gets really red and puffy." Her godfather smirked.  
  
"Just because my scar tingles doesn't mean you can come right up to Hogwarts's front door and come barreling into my room!" Her face could have fried an egg.  
  
"According to Professor Dumbledore, it was more than a tingle." Suddenly, the other Golds jumped into the room, wands out. Several other faces promptly turned deep red. Everyone started yelling at Sirius at once for scaring the crap out of them. He started looking smothered.  
  
"If anything's going to help the Ministry find me, it's you all yelling at me! They can probably hear you down at the offices!" It became noticeably quieter after that. But Rose realized another problem.  
  
"What are we going to do with these?" She kicked Draco Malfoy's foot.  
  
"Tie them up?" Ron suggested.  
  
"Throw them out the window?" Harry said.  
  
"Don't kill them!" Ally protested loudly.  
  
They burst into a heated argument. Hermione didn't join in.  
  
"If all of you half-wits would just be quiet so I can hear myself think!" Hermione screeched. She thought for a moment. "We can tie them to some of the chairs in the common room. Somebody could go get Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Snape. If they wake up, we Stun them again."  
  
Rose nodded her head approvingly. That was what she had been thinking. "Fred. George. Alex. Carry these back to the common room and conjure some ropes." They nodded and dragged the Malfoys out the door. "The Patil twins and Ally can get the professors." The Patils and Ally nodded. "We'd better work fast before they wake up. And if any of the other Gryffindors wake up, we're dead."  
  
They nodded again. Rose smiled. There were uncountable advantages to being a teacher.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Hermione followed the Weasly twins and Alex. She was going to conjure the ropes. She had altered the Tie Spell a few years back to make the ropes stronger. Unfortunately, the ropes occasionally strangled the one they were tying. Oh well. She was sure she could get them off the Malfoys in time.  
  
She stopped. They had reached the common room. The twins and Alex dumped their loads on the couches. Hermione pulled out her wand.  
  
"Roplionus Maximus!" she said.  
  
Steel ropes the size of her arm wrapped themselves around the wrists, ankles, and torsos of the Malfoys, tying them to the couch. Fred and George patted them down, looking for their wands. They gave them to Hermione to hold, who tucked them into an inside pocket she had sewn into her robes. Now, where was Ron? She wanted to hold his hand some more. Hermione turned around to look for him and nearly ran him over. He must have followed her up.  
  
"Hi, Mione," he said. "Are you okay?" Her face was very red.  
  
"Oh...yeah. I'm fine," she said.  
  
"'Mione, I know this isn't a good time to ask you this but...do you wanna go out with me?"  
  
She nearly squealed. "Yes! How about when we get rid of that?" She motioned to the Malfoys.  
  
"Sure. Tomorrow afternoon. Meet me in the Great Hall after class." He walked back downstairs. Hermione turned around, where the Weasly twins and Alex watched with interest.  
  
"Ooo, little Ronnykins finally has a girlfriend," George said, grinning.  
  
"It's just one date!" Hermione defended herself.  
  
"Speaking of dates....." Fred said. "George and I won't be able to make Rose's birthday party tomorrow. We're going to Hogsmeade with a couple of hot chicks." He looked over at Alex, who blushed. "They've promised to show us some Beater moves afterward."  
  
Hermione squealed. "Oh that's so cute!" she shrieked. "You two with identical girlfriends!"  
  
"It's just one date," the twins said, grinning.  
  
They started talking about what they were going to do on their dates. They were so involved in their conversation they didn't notice the beetle that was sitting on the ropes binding the Malfoys. 


	13. The Good, the Bad, and the Very UnUgly

Disclaimer: See chap. 1  
  
I'm going to start thanking some of my more common reviewers! Well, if my brain lets me remember. I have the attention span and short-term memory of a goldfish.  
  
Bluegirl18: If I didn't have any suspense, how could I keep people reading?  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter 13  
  
Rose was sitting at the desk in her office, listing ways that the Malfoys could have gotten into Gryffindor Tower. She had listed eighteen so far, and crossed out seventeen. The only possible way was that there was a traitor in Gryffindor. Someone must have told them the password. The two older Malfoys must have Apparated to somewhere just outside of the Hogwarts grounds and flown into the castle.  
  
Her auburn hair brushed the ink again. Rose impatiently tossed it over her shoulder and stood up. Enough with the writing. She needed to get back to the common room and see if the professors were there yet. She grabbed a large, flat box from her closet and raced through the portrait hole.  
  
Professor Snape had revived Draco and had performed the full Body-Bind and was tying him up. Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy had also been revived. Professor Dumbledore was speaking to them, and Professor McGonagall was talking to the Golds about what had happened. Harry was attempting to tell the story without telling her that Sirius had been in Rose's room. He was currently explaining why they had been in Rose's room.  
  
"We heard Mrs. Malfoy scream, and it sounded like she was in Professor Creek's room. We all went down there to see what had happened, and we saw them lying on the floor. Professor Creek said she'd caught them in her room so she'd Stunned them. She told us to tie them up and get each of you."  
  
Professor McGonagall frowned. "You have no idea how they got into Gryffindor Tower?"  
  
Rose stepped forward. "There is only one possible way, Professor. We must have a traitor in Gryffindor."  
  
Everyone jumped. They had thought Rose was still in her office. Professor McGonagall did not look pleased. "Rosemary, may I speak to you for a moment?" Rose nodded and walked over to a corner.  
  
"What really happened?" McGonagall asked.  
  
"We were sitting in the common room when we heard someone coming. Everyone but Harry and I hid under the chairs and couches. We followed the Malfoys up to the prefects' room, but they just turned around and went to the fifth year boys' dorm. They didn't do anything there, either. After that it was the fifth year girls', but they left there, too. Then they went down to my room. Sirius was there. He Stunned them, but Narcissa Malfoy screamed before he did. That and me yelling at Sirius brought the other Golds down. I told them to tie up the Malfoys and get you professors."  
  
McGonagall frowned again. "Rose, who would betray Gryffindor?"  
  
Rose shrugged. "You're the head of house. You tell me."  
  
"I have no earthly idea! And Rose, I want you to get some sleep! You've got a big day tomorrow!"  
  
She nodded gratefully and walked down to her room. She was going into an enchanted sleep. Without any dreams.  
  
*~*~*  
  
The next day was October the seventeenth, Rose's birthday. Harry had bought her a gift several weeks ago, just to be prepared. He grabbed it, got dressed, and walked down to the Great Hall. He looked everywhere for Ron, but apparently he and Hermione had already gone to breakfast.  
  
When he got to the Great Hall, he saw Ron and Hermione sitting next to her. That was unusual. Harry usually sat between them. As he got closer, he picked up the conversation they were having.  
  
*Ron, where are we going?*  
  
*It's a surprise.*  
  
*Ronald Weasley, I demand you tell me where we are going!*  
  
*I'll give you a hint. Broomsticks.*  
  
*The Three Broomsticks?!*  
  
* I've just gotta give the clue to the smartest of my friends.*  
  
Are you insulting me?* Harry said with fake indignity.  
  
Ron and Hermione whirled around. "Harry!" they said simultaneously. He grinned.  
  
"Are you two going on a date?" he asked.  
  
"No. We're joining the ranks of Voldemort," Hermione said.  
  
"Don't say his name! Now Harry's got you infected!" Ron hissed.  
  
"Lighten up, Ron. You'll scare her away," Harry said. "What'd you buy for Rose's birthday, anyways?"  
  
"Same thing I bought you," Ron said.  
  
"Another copy of the family history book I made you and four other books, too," Hermione said proudly.  
  
"I got her a new magical music player and five CDs," Harry said.  
  
"Ooo, I haven't seen one of those yet," Hermione squealed. "Mum and Dad won't give me enough money."  
  
Harry looked up. "Oh, the mail's here."  
  
A large tawny owl landed in front of him. It was carrying a Daily Prophet. At the sight of the large article on the front page, his jaw dropped.  
  
MALFOY FAMILY BREAKS INTO GRYFFINDOR TOWER  
  
Last night, Saturday the sixteenth of October, Lucius Malfoy, his wife Narcissa, and son Draco were caught in Gryffindor Tower. Witnesses say that they searched the Gryffindor rooms without actually taking or harming anyone or anything. When they proceeded into the personal room of Professor Rosemary Lillian Creek, they were Stunned by the professor herself. Nine young wizards and witches heard Mrs. Malfoy's scream and rushed into the room, wands out, ready to save their professor. The professor told them to tie up the Malfoys and get the headmaster. Professor Creek herself did not do any of these things herself, however, instead using the students to tie up the dangerous wizards and witch.  
  
Mr. Lucius Malfoy has been fired from his post at the Ministry of Magic for currently unknown reasons. Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy has been fired from St. Mungo's Hospital, and their son Draco Malfoy has been expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for breaking into the common room of another house and entering the personal room of a professor without express permission.  
  
The witnesses of this incident are names that many of us have heard before. The identical twin American Beaters from the national team, Alexa and Alice Bernard were here to visit their friend and former teammate, Professor Creek, a Ravenclaw and her Gryffindor twin set, Padma and Parvati Patil, the Weasly twins Fred and George Weasly, their younger brother Ronald Weasly, Muggle-born Hermione Granger, and none other than Harry Potter, the boy who lived.  
  
-Rita Skeeter  
  
The trio was speechless. Rita Skeeter, report something with no exaggeration? This was a first. And they had other things to rejoice about.  
  
"Malfoy's been expelled!" Hermione shrieked.  
  
"Forget Rose's birthday, we could throw a party just for that!" Harry yelled.  
  
Every Gryffindor made a rush for the nearest Daily Prophet. Apparently, Malfoy hadn't been too popular with any of the Gryffindors. Hermione hid her wand under the table and sent out red and gold sparks. Harry looked at Malfoy, who was eating his last meal at Hogwarts. He was looking even more surly than usual. Harry saw the Weasley twins grin and pull out their wands. Harry grinned, too. He knew what they would do; he'd seen them practicing. They had pointed their wands at Malfoy and muttered something under their breath. Suddenly, Malfoy's hair started flashing red and gold. Everyone in the Great Hall laughed, even the teachers. Even Snape. 


	14. Party!

Disclaimer: See chap. 1  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter 14  
  
Rose stretched out her red and gold canopy bed with a pad of paper. She needed to plan for her party! It was going to have red and gold decorations, of course. She had already made the food list. The house-elves had been very happy when they saw how long it was. She still had to get the presents for her guests. She always gave presents to her guests. She had started when she read the Lord of the Rings and found out hobbits gave presents to the guests at their birthday parties. She generally gave little things like Bertie Bott's or quills, but this year she had made a family history book for everyone coming. Most of them were in the same family, so it was quite easy. But the Patils' and the Bernards' had been rather difficult. She stacked the books in a box and took them down to the Great Hall. She threw out the Weasley twins, who were charming the Slytherins' table to make it match Malfoy's hair.  
  
The next thing on her list was her "parents." She needed to get them their invitations. She whistled, and Heartsong came soaring through her window. Rose gave her letters to Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Sirius, and tried to send one to Madame Pomfrey, even though she knew that she couldn't come. She always had to deal with Slytherins cursing off the Gryffindors' ears or something. So she sent the family history book down, too. Finally. Done. She went down to the library.  
  
She browsed for a while before she found what she wanted. The book was called Phoenix Families: How to Trace Them. She took ten points off Slytherin for the two making out behind a bookshelf and dropped it on a table. She wanted to know Starsong's children's ancestry. She managed to find evidence that Fawkes was a descendant of Rojas, the pet phoenix of Godric Gryffindor. That was interesting. Heartsong was a descendant of Gryffindor's wife's phoenix. Luckily, Rojas and Goldilocks, Mrs. Gryffindor's phoenix, never mated. Otherwise, Fawkes couldn't have mate Heartsong. Their mating was a powerful bond. Her children were very strong. Rose frowned. But only if they were cared for correctly. She'd better go check on her egg.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Harry was bored.  
  
Ron and Hermione had gone on their date and he couldn't find Rose. So he'd messed with the phoenix egg he had gotten from Hagrid for his birthday and read his phoenix book, which he discovered had a little countdown clock to when his phoenix to hatch. According to it, his phoenix should hatch in about half an hour. Suddenly, his day became very interesting. He decided to try and find Rose again. Luckily, she was in her room when he checked.  
  
"Rose!" he said. "The phoenix eggs are supposed to hatch in (he checked the clock) fifteen minutes!"  
  
Rose grabbed her egg and raced through the portrait hole. It took them another thirteen minutes to get Ron's and Hermione's eggs and get back to the fifth year boys' dorm. They watched the four eggs anxiously. Suddenly, there was a sharp cracking sound. The shell on Rose's egg broke. It seemed to be a signal to the other phoenixes. Each of them pecked a hole in their shell and climbed out. Rose's and Harry's seemed to know their owners. They crawled onto their outstretched hands and fell asleep. The others fell asleep where they lay.  
  
"Mine's a girl," Rose announced. "Lemme see yours, Harry."  
  
She gently picked it up. "It's a boy." She checked the other two. Ron's was a boy and Hermione's, a girl. Harry and Rose put their phoenixes in their nests and did the same for the other two. Ron found Harry stroking his sleeping phoenix's back idly with his finger an hour later.  
  
"Is that a phoenix?!" he said. Harry nodded. "Wicked!"  
  
"Yours, Mione's, and Rose's have hatched, too. Mine's a boy, Rose's is a girl, yours is a boy, and Mione's is a girl. What are you going to name it?"  
  
"Uh...Plumor."  
  
"Plumor?"  
  
"Plume or is French for gold feather. What's yours named?"  
  
Harry smiled. "James."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Hermione squealed as soon as she saw the tiny phoenix sitting in the nest on her bed.  
  
"Parvati. When did it hatch?"  
  
"I don't know. Professor Creek came in and said it was going to hatch in about sixty seconds and took it to the common room. She came back with it a few minutes later. She says it's a girl."  
  
"Can I hold her? What are you going to name her?"  
  
"Plumaroa. Pluma roja means red feather in Spanish."  
  
"Doesn't look too red right now," Lavender said doubtfully.  
  
"That's because it's a newborn, smarts."  
  
"Shut up, Parvati."  
  
"Both of you shut up!"  
  
They did.  
  
"Now does either of you idiots know where Professor Creek is?"  
  
Parvati nodded. "She's in her room."  
  
Hermione jumped out of the dorm and nearly ran Ron over. "Harry already told me," Ron said. "What'd you name her?"  
  
"Her name's Plumaroa."  
  
"What does that mean?"  
  
"Pluma roja means red feather in Spanish. What did you name yours?"  
  
"His name's Plumor. Plum or is French for gold feather."  
  
"So we have red feather and gold feather. No one needs to guess very hard at our house, do they?" They laughed. "Come on, let's see the Professor's!" They jumped out of the portrait hole and started banging on the door.  
  
*Professor Potter!* Hermione switched to telepathy so no one would hear them call her by her real last name. *It's Ron and Hermione!*  
  
*~*~*  
  
Rose was awoken from her nap by a loud banging on the door.  
  
*Professor Potter! It's Ron and Hermione!* Hermione's voice said.  
  
*Coming, Hermione. And call me Rose,* Rose said. She rolled out of bed and stumbled to the door. Ron and Hermione nearly fell onto the floor.  
  
*When did they hatch?* Hermione asked. *Where's yours? What's her name?*  
  
Rose mentally laughed. *About an hour ago, in its nest, Lily.*  
  
*Mine's Plumaroa, Ron's is Plumor. He is so weird.*  
  
*Hey! It's better than Plumaroa.*  
  
*Want to swap?*  
  
*No!*  
  
*Come on!*  
  
Rose grinned. She knew how to stop their squabbling. *So...you two had a date?* They shut up fast.  
  
*Oh...uh...it was just a little trip...not really a date.*  
  
Rose laughed again. *Don't worry. I don't take points off for student romance.*  
  
*Good. Because Fred and George are going to miss your party. So are the Bernard twins.*  
  
*They went on a date?! Oh, I'm going to get them, they never told me anything about that!*  
  
They chatted and played with their phoenixes for a few hours. It seemed like only a few minutes later, it was time for the party. Rose sent Ron and Hermione back to their rooms so she could change. She put on a red skirt, a shimmering gold peasant blouse, her ruby-and-gold phoenix necklace, a matching bracelet, and the ruby-and-gold earrings she had worn the night Bill proposed to her. She took a deep breath and went down to the Great Hall.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Bill was waiting for his fiancée to come to her party. Everyone knew she would be the last one there. She always was.  
  
He looked around. There was a very wide assortment of guests. All of Rose's godparents were there. Her brother and his friends were there. Fred, George, and the Bernards would be late, so Bill had to hold their presents to her. The boxes kept jumping suspiciously. All of the professors had turned up, even Professor Dumbledore. There were a few students there, and Rose's friends from the American national Quidditch team had turned up. Bill's parents were there, too. The only person missing was Rose.  
  
Just then, she came into the Great Hall. She looked beautiful. The candles glinted off her gold blouse so that it looked like she was glowing. The smile on her face almost was. She had braided her auburn hair into a complicated knot at the back of her head. The gem on the ring on her right hand was cleverly hidden so no one would ask questions before they made the announcements. She came over to Bill.  
  
"Rosie, you look beautiful," he told her. She blushed.  
  
"Come on, Bill, I need to introduce you to some of my friends." She dragged him over to the group of American Quidditch players chatting in the corner.  
  
"This is the Keeper, Jillian Anderson, these are the Chasers, Katie Brown, Elizabeth Hart, and Chelsea Johnson, the Beaters are Alex and Ally who are off on their date with your brothers, and here's the Seeker who took over for me, Emily Grumman." All of them seemed to be very tall, very pretty, and either blonde or brunette. Except for Jillian, who had wavy red hair like Rose.  
  
"Girls, this is Bill Weasley, my boyfriend." They all said hi. "Come on, Bill, I've got to give you your family book. I made one for everyone here." She dragged him over to a large box in the center of the table. "Let's see.here it is!" She pulled a large, leather-bound book from the bottom of the box. "I charmed the pages to update at every marriage, birth, or death." They sat down, ordered, and the food appeared on their plates. "So, do you like the decorations?"  
  
Bill grinned. They were in red and gold. "The only person who wouldn't like the decorations is a Slytherin. Speaking of which, did you know that Malfoy's hair is still red and gold? My brothers made it so that anyone who tries to reverse it to green and silver gets the gold and red, too. So now Crabbe, Goyle, Millicent Bulstrode, Pansy Parkinson, and Blaise Zabini all have red and gold hair. They skipped classes all day and hid in their rooms."  
  
Rose laughed, which made Bill smile. His fiancée had the best laugh, like bells. Must be the Evans laugh. Dumbledore must have decided that it was time for everyone to sit down, because Bill heard him talk over the chatter.  
  
"Please, everyone, take your seats." Everyone grabbed a chair and sat. "We are here to celebrate the birthday of our professor, fellow teacher, friend, and sister, Rose Lily Potter. (Everyone there knew that she was Harry's sister). Today she celebrates her twentieth birthday." He paused to let everyone clap. Bill saw Rose blush again. "If I am not mistaken, I believe Miss Potter would appreciate it if I stopped my yammering and allowed her to make a few announcements."  
  
Rose stood on her chair. "I would like all of you to know that each of you has a present from me to you in this box." She pointed at the box holding the books. "Secondly, please welcome my friends from America, the American National Quidditch team!" There was thunderous applause for them, who simply smiled and waved. "Thirdly, Bill Weasly and I would like to make an announcement." She grabbed Bill's hand, and he stood up next to her. "I would like to announce that on May the fifteenth, William Joseph Weasly and I will be getting married."  
  
Everyone clapped, even harder than for the Quidditch team. Molly Weasly started crying. Rose revealed the beautiful stone on her right hand, and the girls around her immediately began asking to see it. She looked up at Bill and smiled.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Hermione and her friends Parvati, Padma, and Lavender knew what they were going to do. They began a countdown.  
  
"Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Contact!"  
  
Bill's and Rose's lips connected in front of half the school. The girls squealed. The boys groaned. 


	15. The Gifts of the Golds

Disclaimer: See chap. 1  
  
Thanks to all my reviewers!  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter 16  
  
Rose was happier than she had ever been. She could finally stop worrying about keeping her engagement from everybody. It looked like they all approved. Molly Weasly certainly did. To her shock, Hermione, Parvati, Lavender, Padma, Madame Pomfrey, and Minerva were also crying. And Severus was actually smiling. The last time she had seen him smile like that was when he gave Harry detention for cursing Goyle.  
  
Ron and Harry started banging the table and chanting. "Presents! Presents!"  
  
Rose laughed and jumped off her chair. She approached the huge pile of presents and began with the present from her old Quidditch team. It was actually two presents. She tore open the rectangular one first. It was a redwood box with all four Quidditch balls inside. The other present was much longer and thinner. She tore it open slowly. Inside was a beautiful, brand-new Firebolt. She screamed and ran to hug them. When she had settled down, she picked up the present from her godparents. It was four advance tickets to next year's Quidditch World Cup. The next present she opened was from Harry. It was a magical CD player and five CDs.  
  
"Thanks!" she said. "My last one got ruined when I moved from America."  
  
Hermione had given her a copy of the family history book she had given Harry and several other books. Ron had bought her an assortment of candy. The entire teaching staff chipped in to get her a new desk and bookcase. When she opened the present from Fred and George, it nearly knocked her over. They had bought her a cat!  
  
"Is that a cat or a lion?" Bill asked, only half jokingly. It was the size of a bobcat!  
  
The Bernards present was a ticket to the U.S. so she could visit sometime. The Patil twins bought her a beautiful ruby-and-gold collar for Heartsong and a slightly smaller one for Lily. Molly and Arthur Weasly had given her some tiny diamond hair clips. She tucked them into her braid immediately. The last present, from Lavender Brown, was a new quill and an ink bottle. She thanked everyone and handed out the presents from her. Hermione squealed and began to look through hers right away, trying to find any magical relatives. Everyone else tucked them into bags or sat them on chairs to bring up later.  
  
Rose decided to get away from the crush for a few minutes. She grabbed her presents and ran them up to her room. She laid them on her bed and turned to go downstairs and almost ran Professor Dumbledore over.  
  
"Oh! I'm sorry, Professor, I didn't see you there." She noticed he was holding two packages wrapped in Gryffindor lion-patterned paper. "What are those?"  
  
"Birthday presents. One is from me. The other is from your parents." He handed her the smaller of the two first. "This one is mine." She unwrapped it slowly. It was a picture album. She opened it, and her parents, herself, and Harry waved up at her.  
  
"That was the family portrait from the year they died," Dumbledore said. He handed her the second present. "These are some things that your parents made for you and left with me. They told me to give them to you when you turned twenty. Here's the note."  
  
She carefully unfolded the yellowed paper and read, "Happy twentieth birthday, Princess! You look exactly your mother. James Potter." She turned the paper over and read the other note. "If you are reading this, than we couldn't get to your birthday. Keep these so you'll remember us when you get old! Happy twentieth birthday, Rosie!"  
  
She gently unwrapped the package. There were two boxes inside. The first held two wedding rings with a ruby lion on them and a beautiful wedding dress.  
  
"Mum's," Rose whispered.  
  
The second was an intricately carved mahogany box. There was a ruby rose on the top and there were opal lilies along the sides. Inside the box were ten rings, each one a different color. She gasped.  
  
"Professor, are these the rings?"  
  
He nodded. She let her fingers brush the deep red velvet and gold satin interior of the box. To her surprise, she heard her mother's voice begin to sing the song.  
  
When the cold of winter comes  
  
Starless night will cover day  
  
In the veiling of the sun  
  
We will walk in bitter rain  
  
But in dreams  
  
I still hear your name  
  
And in dreams  
  
We will meet again  
  
When the seas and mountains fall  
  
And we come to end of day  
  
In the dark I hear a call  
  
Calling me there  
  
I will go there  
  
And back again  
  
*~*~*  
  
Back in the Great Hall, Harry could hear the song. He talked to Rose.  
  
*Rose. What's going on? Who's singing?*  
  
*Harry, that's Mum's voice. It's a music box Professor Dumbledore gave me.*  
  
*I thought he gave you that desk and bookcase.*  
  
*The music box isn't really from him. It's from Mum and Dad. He was just watching it for me. They gave me a wedding dress and wedding rings, too.*  
  
*They had your wedding prepared when you were five?!*  
  
"Shut up, Harry."  
  
He whirled around. Rose had just come back in, followed by the Weasly twins and the Bernards. The Bernards dragged their dates over to the American girls to introduce them, so Harry and Rose were alone.  
  
"The wedding dress. Was it Mum's?"  
  
Rose nodded.  
  
"Not good." Harry pointed at Bill and Dumbledore. Dumbledore was handing Bill a large box. "I would bet anything that's Dad's suit." Bill opened the box to reveal a suit. "What'd I tell you?"  
  
Rose sighed. "I need to get all the Golds together. Go round up your friends; I'll get the Bernards and the Weasleys."  
  
Harry found Ron and Hermione talking with Padma and Parvati Patil. He told them Rose wanted them for some reason. They dutifully followed him back to where she was standing with the other two sets of twins.  
  
"Dumbledore just gave me these." She opened a large mahogany box. Inside were ten rings of different colors. "Yes, these are the Rainbow rings. Fred, you've got red, George, orange, Ally, yellow, Alex, green, Parvati, blue, Padma, purple, Ron, black, Hermione, white. Harry, you get your gold ring and I'll get my silver. Now do not put these on unless I or Harry tells you to. They are very powerful and are not to be worn as decorative jewelry. Put them somewhere safe immediately."  
  
They ran to their various rooms to put them away. Harry decided to stat to feed his phoenix. When he went back to the Great Hall, the party was over. So he just went back to his room and fell asleep.  
  
He, the other Golds, and Ginny were tied to trees. He tried to move, but something was blocking him. Ten Death Eaters appeared and glided towards them. But not one approached Harry. Instead, they made a path for a tall, red-eyed man in a black cloak.  
  
Voldemort.  
  
He glided toward Harry, who began searching in his pocket for something. The others did the same. He pulled out a large, glowing golden ring. The others pulled out other rings of different colors, but also glowing. They slipped them on, and suddenly there was a huge explosion of light.  
  
Harry sat up in bed, his scar practically burning a hole through his head. 


	16. Colors of the Rainbow

Disclaimer: See chapter 1  
  
To all of my reviewers, especially WolfOfDarkness, Spacegirl, Madame Moony, CrazyLuvolee, Bluegirl18 and Shdurrani.  
  
A few typos were pointed out to me.  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter 17  
  
Rose was writing with her new quill and ink when she had the vision. She and the other Golds were tied to trees in a clearing. Death Eaters were approaching all of them but Harry, who was being handled by Voldemort personally. Harry began frantically rummaging in his pocket. The ring! Rose began to do the same. So did everyone else. When everyone had their rings out, they slipped them on, causing an explosion of light. That was when the vision ended, and Rose sat up, scar burning like acid. About fifteen minutes later Harry fell through her doorway, followed by Ron and Hermione. She nodded.  
  
"You had it too?"  
  
"Yes," they all responded.  
  
"Well, just be glad you don't have a scar to burn a hole through your head. Crap, it hurts!"  
  
She impatiently slapped her forehead.  
  
"Tell me about it."  
  
Harry was rubbing at his scar so hard the skin around it was red.  
  
"Those were the rings, weren't they Professor?" Hermione asked.  
  
"Call me Rose. And yes, they were the rings."  
  
"Do you think the others dreamed it too?"  
  
"If they weren't asleep, it was a vision, like it was for me. It sucks to have visions when you're in the middle of something."  
  
"They suck when you're asleep, too."  
  
The Bernards and the Weasly twins suddenly burst in, hair and clothes rumpled.  
  
"Just had the vision," they said in chorus.  
  
"Where were you?" Rose asked.  
  
"And what happened to you?" Ron asked.  
  
Rose stared into Ally's eyes and searched her memories. Her mouth went into a big O.  
  
"You were making out after one date?!"  
  
All four of them blushed.  
  
"Well, you shouldn't talk. Who's the one who got engaged after a week?" Alex said defensively.  
  
"Did you actually think I took a pottery class every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night and every Monday and Wednesday afternoon for the past five years?"  
  
Ron's mouth hung open. "You've known Bill for five years?! And Mum and Dad never met you?"  
  
Rose blushed. "Never mind that! Where are your rings?"  
  
Everyone held them up. "Good. Keep them on you at all times, but keep them safe and don't put them on! Only when we perform the Rainbow. And Fred, George, Harry, we've got Quidditch practice tomorrow so go sleep! And you four," she stared accusingly at the Weasley twins and the Bernards, "separate beds! Or I will personally throttle each one of you!!! Wait until you marry!"  
  
The four twins walked out muttering lots of four-letter words under their breath. Harry and Hermione went upstairs, but Ron stayed behind.  
  
"Erm, Professor," he said.  
  
"Rose, Ron, Rose! And what?"  
  
"How did you manage to date my brother for five years without anyone noticing?"  
  
Rose grinned. Time to reveal her ingenious scheme.  
  
"We were pen pals for a year and I sent him a Portkey to my house and he sent me one to his. We arranged who would use the Portkey by mail."  
  
Ron's jaw dropped again. "And you did this five days a week for five years?!"  
  
She grinned again. "Yep. Now go to bed. If you fall asleep during my class tomorrow you've got detention. And I'm telling the rest of the teaching staff the same. Now GO!"  
  
He scurried out the door and tried to catch up with his friends.  
  
She sighed and collapsed on her bed. She was going to sleep...a potion- induced sleep...with no dreams.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Quidditch practice the next day went wonderfully. The Quaffle didn't make it through the hoops Rose guarded once. Harry was quite impressed with her talent. They won the game against Ravenclaw in November. Hufflepuff didn't have a chance; their new Seeker was a fat third year who had fallen off his broom and broken his arm twice already - and they hadn't even played a game.  
  
Training to perform the Rainbow Spell continued throughout the last two weeks of October and all of November, until Rose decided they were ready. The time and day to perform the spell was set as December 15 at 12:00 a.m.  
  
Harry was nearly too late. Peeves had decided it would be fun to dump lake water in the hallway Harry was walking down. Professor Snape had come down the hallway at that moment, blamed Harry, took fifty points from Gryffindor, and sent him back to bed. Harry, of course, simply grabbed his Invisibility Cloak.  
  
He got to the designated clearing at quarter till twelve. Rose wasn't pleased.  
  
"You're late," she said in "the teacher voice."  
  
"Snape blamed me for throwing water down the hallway."  
  
Her mouth thinned. "Then I will just have to set a few of his things on fire. Now come on, get out your rings.  
  
Harry did. To his surprise, it was already glowing slightly. He could feel the magic emanating from it. This was a very powerful magical object.  
  
"Now get in a circle around Ginny's wand." She held it out. Everyone mad a circle around it and placed their ring hand on its long part.  
  
"Put on your rings." The rings looked like small stars now. As soon as they were put on, there was an explosion of light.  
  
*Start the incantation.* She had switched to telepathy because no one could hear over the humming of the rings.  
  
"Expecto wingardium tulis Patronum."  
  
Ten Patronus jumped from the circle into the middle, dissolving and forming a cushion under the wand. They slowly lifted it up and stretched out, forming a dome around the ten with the wand on the top. They finished the incantation.  
  
"Orladis darinium."  
  
A small shape started to flicker in the middle of the circle. They repeated the incantation, and it steadied a bit, but it still wasn't strong enough. But at the third time, it steadied completely. Virginia Weasly had come home. The dome broke. She caught her wand as it fell.  
  
"Ginny!" he brothers yelled.  
  
They ran to her and George picked her up. She looked terrible. Her hair, usually straight and bright red, was a curly mass of hair so matted with dirt and dried blood it looked like it was brown. The three brothers carried her up to the hospital wing. Harry quietly followed. The rest of the Golds went to bed.  
  
She woke up as soon as they lay her on the bed. Madame Pomfrey came scurrying over to look at her. She shooed the Weasleys and Harry away from the bed so she could check her up. She took half an hour.  
  
"Nothing too serious. It's just shock, mostly. Sprained wrist, but apart from a lot of little cuts and bruises, that's it. She'll be fine," she said, before they could ask. "She just needs a bath, potion, and a very large, very tough brush."  
  
She scurried off to check on some of her other patients.  
  
"Ginny," Harry whispered. "What did he do to you?"  
  
She suddenly sat up quickly and hugged him. "I'm really back? I'm not dreaming again?"  
  
He hugged her back. "Yes, Ginny. You're really back." He frowned. "What do you mean, 'really back'?"  
  
She lay back down. "He kept pretending to send me back. He would hold out something, and it felt like I was going through a Portkey, and when I got to the other side, everyone was there. You and most of my brothers. I recognized almost everyone. But after five minutes or so, I would be tied against a tree again, and You-Know-Who would put me under the Cruciatus curse. He kept asking about something called the Order of the Phoenix. Do you know what it is?"  
  
Harry groaned. This must be why Rose hadn't told him about the Order right away. "Ginny, I'll tell you the simple version. But you'll have to ask Professor Potter about it later."  
  
"Professor Potter? Is she any relation to you?"  
  
"I'll get to that. The Order of the Phoenix is a group of powerful witches and wizards formed to fight Voldemort. I think those were the people Voldemort showed you. There are four levels, White, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, in that order. You are in a level according to how powerful you are. The people you saw were probably the Gold level witches and wizards."  
  
She frowned. "But you and my brothers were there!"  
  
"Yes. We're Gold. So are you. That's why Voldemort wanted you."  
  
"And who is this Professor Potter?"  
  
"Her name is Rosemary Lillian Potter, but everyone calls her Rose Lily Potter. I met her right before school started this year. She's a really powerful Gold level witch. She has red hair, not like your red, more like auburn, like her mum, and aqua blue eyes, like her dad. She wears contacts and had a scar like mine."  
  
Ginny's jaw dropped. She looked so much like her brothers when she did that. "So she's your..."  
  
"Sister."  
  
Ginny leaned back onto her pillows. "Wow. Any other new relatives? Anything?"  
  
"Well, Fred and George are dating another pair of identical twins. They're the Beaters for the American national team. Alexa and Alice Bernard. Ron is dating Hermione, and Bill's engaged."  
  
Her jaw dropped again. "He got engaged?! To someone he just met?!"  
  
"Actually, they've been dating five days a week for five years."  
  
"So that's the dragons class he'd been taking. What's her name?"  
  
"Rose Lily Potter."  
  
"Oh my God!!!"  
  
"And I found a cousin."  
  
"Who now?"  
  
"Hermione."  
  
"No way!"  
  
"Yes. Her mother is my mother's sister."  
  
"So if Ron marries Hermione and there's also Bill marrying Rose that makes me your sister-in-law and cousin-in-law!"  
  
"Yeah, I guess it would. And Rose wants me to ask you to be her flower girl. And I want to ask you to go to the Christmas Ball with me."  
  
"Yes and."  
  
"Ginny!"  
  
"Okay, okay! Yes!"  
  
She hugged him again.  
  
"I'd better get back to Gryffindor Tower before Snape comes along and takes another fifty points off Gryffindor."  
  
She nodded. He sprinted up the stairs, grinning all the way. 


	17. Shopping, Trip

Disclaimer: See chap. 1  
  
A/N: When Harry and Ron are asking Snape the questions, H=Harry, R=Ron, and anything not marked is Snape.  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter 18  
  
Rose's classes were much more interesting with Ginny around. She had filled out quite a bit over the summer, so all the boys kept goggling at her. It was always fun to embarrass boys by calling on someone and they were too busy staring at someone's bust to know the answer. Ginny also seemed to take after the twins; she had a tendency to play pranks on the other students. Rose loved pranks, and even devised the Great Weasley/Potter Conspiracy.  
  
She actually came up with the idea. She needed revenge on Professor Snape for taking those fifty points off Gryffindor when Harry needed to get to the clearing for the Rainbow Spell. Harry was doing some Charms homework and she was inspired by his turning Ron's dress robes dark blue.  
  
"Harry!" she said suddenly, making him jump, "I have my revenge plan! Where are the Weasleys?" Harry pointed to the fireplace, where all five Weasleys at Hogwarts were talking about Bill and Rose's wedding.  
  
"Fred! George! Do you want to play another prank on a Slytherin?"  
  
The Weasleys sat up instantly.  
  
"You two," she said, pointing at the twins, "how do you work that red and gold charm you put on Malfoy's hair?" Harry heard them and came over. He wanted to help.  
  
"Here's my plan. I buy Snape new robes. He always makes me do it. I bring them up here. Some of us alter Fred and George's charm to make it only activate when Snape puts on the robes. We curse his potion ingredients so they'll do the opposite of what they're supposed to. I deliver him his robes. He usually puts them on the next day. He puts on the robes, they flash red and gold, and I'll charm them so he can't take them off for a week. He gets even more embarrassment when he makes a potion to demonstrate for his class and it blows up in his face. It should work out perfectly."  
  
Potions the next day was wonderful. Snape came swooping into the dungeon, which was much less intimidating than usual as his robes were alternately flashing red and gold. Several Gryffindors snorted, but were immediately silenced by a Death Glare.  
  
"The ingredients for the Draught of Peace are on the board," he snarled, waving his wand. "You have ninety minutes. Begin."  
  
Ron, Hermione, and Harry kept glancing up and watching Snape as he threw ingredients into a potion bubbling on his desk. Then he frowned slightly as he noticed the color. It was pink. The Draught of Peace was supposed to be blue. He leaned forward to take a closer look...and it exploded all over his robes. Snape took fifty points from Gryffindor just out of pure spite, but it was worth it, as the stains and burn on his robes was there for the rest of the week.  
  
*~*~*  
  
"Rose, what's this surprise that you teachers keep talking about?" Harry asked.  
  
"I can't tell you just because you're my brother! You'll learn eventually!" Rose said indignantly.  
  
"Come on," Harry whined. "Please?"  
  
"Fine. It's a field trip."  
  
Over the next few weeks, everyone was passing around rumors about the field trip. Rose was the teacher assigned to the trip. Her job was to make sure that no one died and that the prefects organized it right.  
  
"You are to place the students in groups of four, two girls, two boys, and one from each house. They will travel with their groups, not the whole student body. Only fourth, fifth, and sixth years will be going. It will be only to Muggle areas, so no magic is allowed unless absolutely necessary. There will be a trip to Muggle London January 2 to shop for the trip. You are allowed fifty necessary items. They can be shrunk. The trip will last three months, February, March and April. You must work with the other houses' prefects."  
  
The prefects from the other houses were Susan Bones and Justin Finch- Fletchley for Hufflepuff, Terry Boot and Amanda Blocklehurst for Ravenclaw and Pansy Parkinson and a tall, black-haired boy named Dameon Morkin for Slytherin. Harry and Hermione were put in charge of choosing places to visit. The Hufflepuffs formed groups, the Ravenclaws made a list of supplies, and the Slytherins set up days for checkpoints, to make sure everyone was alive. The checkpoints would also have a quick written test on what they had learned about the Muggle world.  
  
Harry and Hermione began accepting suggestions for where to go. They were to pick ten spots anywhere in the world. It had to be something interesting to all the years going. They began with the Bahamas, went on to Florida, then moved to two spots in California, then Salem, then New York City, then France, Russia, Spain, and Ireland. They were supposed to get to Ireland on June 21, when there would be a celebration if everyone got back alive. Rose was excited about it, herself. The professors had insisted someone go with them, and since Rose was the most liked teacher, she would go. She was to stay with the prefects and handle any problems. This pleased everyone but Bill.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Before anyone knew it, it was Christmas and time for the ball. Ginny and Hermione had agreed to shop with Ginny for her date with Harry. Luckily, there was a Hogsmeade trip a week before the dance. Unfortunately, they were having a bit of trouble.  
  
"Mione I have no clue what to buy!" Ginny wailed. "What's Harry's favorite color? What color are his robes?"  
  
"Ginny, calm down. If Harry likes you enough to ask you to the ball, he shouldn't mind what you wear much."  
  
"I care what I wear! If I don't look gorgeous AND match Harry, the Slytherins will never let me live it down!"  
  
Hermione slowed her frantic pawing through the robes. "Which Slytherins?"  
  
"Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, Millicent Bulstrode. Their boyfriends, too. Zabini is Goyle's and Bulstrode is Crabbe's. Parkinson is Malfoy's, of course."  
  
"Those two hulking idiots have girlfriends?"  
  
"I don't know how they got them! Just help me find some robes!"  
  
"Having trouble, Miss Weasley?" said a voice from behind them.  
  
The girls whirled around. "Oh, it's just you Professor," Ginny said, seeing Rose.  
  
"Rose, please, Miss Weasley, Rose."  
  
"Not until you call me Ginny. Miss Weasley sounds weird."  
  
"All right, Ginny. And Harry's favorite color is forest green, and his robes are Gryffindor red."  
  
"Oh THANK YOU Rose!" Ginny jumped up and hugged her Professor and went back to frantically looking for a good robe and something to wear under it.  
  
"Might I suggest these?" Rose said, holding up a gold shimmering dress with deep red velvet trim and robes of the same red. Ginny smiled. A professor being helpful in something other than school. Well, she was her future sister-in-law.  
  
"Is that the same red as Harry's robes?"  
  
"Exactly. Here, I'll pay."  
  
"No."  
  
"Please can I pay?"  
  
"Prof - Rose! I'm not poor!"  
  
"No, but I'm sort of your sister. So I'm paying. I picked, I'm paying. Look at the price tag and you'll appreciate it."  
  
Ginny shut up and let her professor pay. It was slightly weird to have her sister-in-law also be her boyfriend's sister, professor, and friend. But she could deal.  
  
"Rose, let's go to Honeydukes!" she said.  
  
"Great! I love it there. And can we go by Zonko's afterward?"  
  
"You like Zonko's?!"  
  
"Sure, always remember the Great Weasley/Potter conspiracy and who though it up. Man, Snape looks good in red and gold." The girls snickered. "And that scorch mark - the sunburst design is quite nice."  
  
"Yeah, he might start a whole new look for the Slytherins!" Ginny said.  
  
They left Honeyduke's with a lot of the new flavored Sugar Quills, Chocolate Frogs, Bertie Bott's, and some levitating sherbet balls. They bought some Christmas presents for Fred and George and a few new things for Snape at Zonko's.  
  
They met up with Harry and Ron in the Three Broomsticks to talk about the recent Gryffindor/Ravenclaw game, which ended in Ron imitating the Ravenclaw Beater's being whacked in the head with a Bludger and knocking over everyone's butterbeers, causing Ginny to whack him upside the head and dump her remaining butterbeer on him. Everyone returned to the castle soaked with butterbeer and laughing.  
  
*~*~*  
  
After the butterbeer fight in the Three Broomsticks, Rose desperately needed a bath. She went into her bathroom, which was the size of a high- school gym, peeled off her soaked clothes, and started drawing a bath in her swimming-pool sized tub. She filled it with her favorite bubbles and climbed in.  
  
She sat there for a long time, drawing in the flower scent of the bubbles when an owl flew through the window in the door. It dropped a letter at the side of the tub and flew off. She picked up the letter curiously and opened it. It said:  
  
Hello, Rose. Long time, no see.  
  
Rose slowly turned to look at the door of her spacious bathroom and saw someone she had hoped never to see again.  
  
"Hello, Rose," Voldemort said, his fiery red eyes glinting evilly. "I've missed you, but I've certainly seen your brother."  
  
Rose ran her hand along the length of her body, and suddenly she was wearing a red and gold robe.  
  
"I'm going to kill you this time," she said. Her blue eyes began to glint violet. "I'm not just a helpless little girl now. I can kill you. My brother will get you if I don't, if he doesn't, my husband will. If he doesn't, one of his brothers or his sister will. Getting the picture?" she hissed.  
  
Voldemort laughed. That laugh pissed her off! "Little Rose, your friends' power is nothing to mine. My Death Eaters and I will always be many, many times as powerful as you." He laughed again. Now Rose was REALLY pissed. Her eyes turned dark purple and suddenly Voldemort couldn't go towards her. She was so furious sparks were flying out of her fingers.  
  
"Remember who won in the end, huh? Who won, Godric Gryffindor and his friends or the lone Salazar Slytherin?! Who do you think will win this time, the heirs of the winners or the heir, singular, heir, to the loser?!"  
  
Rose's fingers weren't just emitting sparks now; there was a stream of deep red light coming from the ends of her fingertips. She brought her hands up and clasped them together, then brought them outward with a blast that would have stopped a tornado.  
  
Voldemort disappeared. The last thing she saw was him vanishing in a cloud of green smoke. She then passed out. 


	18. The Christmas Ball

The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter 19  
  
Rose wasn't at the prefect meeting, and everyone was getting worried.  
  
Well, not everyone. The Slytherins were just bored. But the Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor prefects and the Head Boy and Girl, Roger Davies and Alicia Spinnet were.  
  
"She's probably just organizing something. She does that obsessively, you know," Ron suggested.  
  
Harry smiled. He knew Rose better. And she considered being prompt more important than being organized. Weird teacher qualities. "I'm going to check her room. She finally gave me the password." He ran all the way to her room. He was worried; his newly acquired sibling sixth sense was beating a tattoo on the inside of his skull. Something felt wrong. Of course, that could just be the telepathy talking.  
  
He stopped. He was at the portrait of the Potter family she had replaced her door with.  
  
"In dreams!" he panted. His mother nodded and the portrait swung aside. He bolted through and started yelling for his sister.  
  
"Rose? Rose! Are you in here? Are you all right?" He heard his sister's voice and a laugh he recognized. Voldemort was there.  
  
"Rose!" He was screaming now. He swore. Her rooms were so huge he couldn't figure out where she was. It took him about seven minutes to find the door to her bathroom. He pulled out his wand. "Alohomora!" he whispered. His voice was getting hoarse. He yanked open the door to see a cloud of green smoke and his sister collapsing into her filled bath tub.  
  
"No! Rose!" He dove in. It was one of those ones ten feet deep, so he didn't break his neck. Rose's face looked ghostly green. He reached out and grabbed her hand and tried to pull her up. He sent out a random telepathic message to anyone who could help her.  
  
*Rose's in trouble!*  
  
Within instants several teachers grabbed Harry's and Rose's hands and pulled them out of the bath tub. Professors Snape and Dumbledore led Rose away, and Professor McGonagall threw a large blanket around his shoulders.  
  
"Mr. Potter! Would you be so kind as to enlighten us and tell us what happened here?"  
  
"I don't know, Professor. Rose didn't show up for the prefect meeting about the trip and I got worried, so I came to see if she was here. I heard her voice and someone else's coming from here. I used Alohomora on the lock and saw this cloud of green smoke and I saw Rose fall into her tub. It was a deep tub and she was unconscious, so I jumped in to get her. I called some of my friends and I guess you heard me." There was a loud BANG, and the Golds and Bill burst into the room. "I guess they heard it, too."  
  
The group immediately began shouting questions at McGonagall.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"How's Rose?"  
  
"How's Harry?"  
  
She held up her hand for silence. "Professor Potter is over there. Bill ran over to Rose, who was just regaining consciousness. "Everyone is just fine." This subdued them all. "Now I suggest you get back to your dormitories or one hundred points will be taken from all of your houses!" They scurried off, followed by Harry.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Two weeks later, it was Christmas Eve. Harry went with Ginny, of course, Ron went with Hermione, the Weasly twins went with the Bernards, the Patil twins went with Dean and Seamus, and Rose, of course, went with Bill.  
  
All of the girl twins matched. The Weasly twins were in bright red. Harry had his deep red robes and Ginny looked beautiful in deep red and gold. Ron had yellow robes while Hermione had spring green. Rose was wearing a tight- fitting dress with a deep red top and a gold bottom, with red and gold robes. Bill was in deep red. The girls had pestered Rose until she had shown them how to do the complicated knot she had worn in her hair on her birthday. She had put her diamond hair clips in. Hermione thought that the Weasly/Potter dates were very cute. Potters and Weaslys seemed to do well together.  
  
They had decided to play only Muggle music, and everyone loved it except the Slytherins. They were currently playing Play's Hopelessly Devoted. The girls who had heard it before were singing along while dancing. Hermione was having a wonderful time with Ron. He was actually a very good dancer. But they both like the slow dances better. It gave them a chance to cool down and it gave Hermione a chance to get very close to him.  
  
They danced for an hour before they finally sat down. Unfortunately, there was only one chair left, and Ron beat Hermione to it.  
  
"I got here first," he declared, grinning.  
  
"Did not."  
  
"Did too."  
  
"I have a solution." Hermione used this excuse to sit on his lap. He didn't complain. They sat and watched everyone dance and make out with each other.  
  
"Eew! I wish Fred and George would stop putting their tongues in Alexa and Alice's mouths."  
  
"It's romantic."  
  
"It's disgusting. And the Bernards are older!"  
  
"Only three years."  
  
"I thought they were Rose's age."  
  
"Then five years. It's not that much. I have a Muggle friend whose mum is ten years older than her dad."  
  
"Ten?!"  
  
Just then Avril Lavigne started playing.  
  
"Oh! I love Avril!" Hermione exclaimed. "Come on, let's dance!" She pulled Ron back onto the dance floor. The song was currently Anything But Ordinary.  
  
"Sometimes I get so weird.isn't this song great? I laugh myself to sleep, it's my lullaby."  
  
"Muggle singers actually sing!"  
  
"Is it enough to love.of course they do, dummy.somebody rip my heart out and leave me here to bleed."  
  
"Magical singers charm their voices. And isn't this kind of gory?"  
  
"It's metaphorical! Somebody save my life."  
  
About 10 Avril songs later.  
  
"Come on Ron; let's go sit in the Ice Garden." She pulled him out to the garden of roses and ice statues with the soft snow falling on their faces.  
  
"It's really nice out here, Hermione," Ron said, sitting down on a warm ice bench.  
  
"Yeah. Romantic," she said, leaning towards him.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Ron was enjoying every minute of this. He was going to get to kiss the girl he had had a crush on since first year!  
  
*~*~*  
  
About ten feet away, Rose and Bill were kissing passionately behind the white roses when they heard a rustle. Their lips separated.  
  
"What was that?" Rose said.  
  
"I'll go check it out." Bill pulled the bushes aside to reveal his brother making out with Hermione. He hastily patted the roses back into place and looked over at wide-eyed Rose. Suddenly, she started to giggle. It was contagious. Bill started laughing along. Soon, they were laughing hysterically.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Ginny was having a wonderful time with Harry. And they matched perfectly, to her delight and the Slytherins' horror. As they danced by them, Ginny stuck out her tongue as the Slytherin girls were in bright green and silver and their dates were in forest green. They clashed horribly. They glared at her, making her and Harry laugh.  
  
"Oh, I love aggravating them for a change!" Ginny said. "I'm so tired of them always picking on me! I swear, I'll curse Pansy if she doesn't shut up about my family! Dad got a raise, so we're doing much better. Bill got a raise too. That was one of the reasons he waited to propose to Rose, I think. He bought her this huge ring, she showed it to me. It's got about five different gems. It looks like a unicorn."  
  
"Hey, how come I haven't seen it yet?" Harry said, pretending to be hurt.  
  
"How can you miss it? It's the size of a large beetle." They waltzed by the Slytherins, who were staring at the Daily Prophet. They waved it at Harry as he passed.  
  
"Hey, Potter, seen the paper?" Ginny glanced at the paper as she passed. She did a double take. On the front page of the paper was a blown-up picture of Rose from a teacher photo. Above the picture was a headline: MORE POTTERS  
  
Ginny snatched the paper. "Give me that," she snapped at the Slytherin sixth year holding it. "Harry, look at this." His jaw dropped.  
  
"That Skeeter bitch, how'd she find her?" They read the story.  
  
MORE POTTERS  
  
Everyone knows about the Potter family, right? There's Lily, James, and Harry. We all know Harry's the only one left. Think again. Harrison James Potter has an older sister.  
Rosemary Lillian Potter attended Hogwarts for three years before transferring to the Salem Witches Academy. She finished her lessons there and enjoyed a job as Seeker for the American national team under the named Rosaline Laura Creek. She returned to England the summer of this year to "be with her family." She has. She has begun living with her godparents, Professor Minerva McGonagall and Professor Severus Snape and gotten a job as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and become engaged to the son of Ministry of Magic official Arthur Weasly, William Weasly.  
There is also one other long-lost relation to Harry. A cousin, who herself had no idea she was any relation to Harry. She is Harry's best friend at Hogwarts, Hermione Laura Granger. Her mother, the middle Evans sister, got married just out of high school and ran away from the Evans. She later had Hermione.  
Did Harry know about these long-lost relations? A question only he can answer.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Harry and Ginny sprinted to Rose and Bill, who were taking a break to get some punch.  
  
"Rose!" he yelled. This was a disaster! "Look at the paper!" He waved the Daily Prophet in her face. He watched as her eyes widened, and she snatched the paper and quickly skimmed the article.  
  
"Harry, did you tell them?"  
  
"Of course I didn't! I hate that Skeeter cow!"  
  
"What about Hermione?"  
  
"She hates her even more."  
  
"I know the other Golds wouldn't." She turned to Bill. "Oh please tell me it wasn't you."  
  
"Of course not. I've hated her since she called me 'a long-haired pillock.'"  
  
"That's right dear. Oh, come on, we've got to get the rest of the Golds! This is serious!"  
  
They pulled the other Weaslys and Hermione and the Bernards away from their make out sessions to show them. They found the Patils searching frantically for them. They had already gotten the news. Within minutes, they were all gathered in Rose's sitting room.  
  
"Have you told anyone about this?" Rose asked. Her face was very pale.  
  
"No. You swore us to secrecy. That Skeeter bitch, I warned her, I told her if she ever did that again, I would out her."  
  
"Do what, Hermione?" they all said simultaneously.  
  
"She's an unregistered Animagus. She can turn into a beetle. I found her eavesdropping on the hospital wing last year and put her in a jar. I told her not to do it again and throw away her wretched Quick-Quote Quill or I'd out her. I'm keeping my promise. Who's with me?" Everyone's hands went up. "Who's good at writing?" Rose's and the Patils' hands went up.  
  
"You too, Hermione," Harry said.  
  
"They need you to write the structure. Everyone else edits and figures out a place to send it."  
  
"I'm fine with that," she said. The rest of the writers nodded. "Let's get to work." 


	19. Going Out

Yay!!! 20 chappies! ::dances around the room and spacegirl whacks her on the head for trying to moonwalk:: As a celebration I've decided that I will make a sequel, maybe even two sequels, to The Unicorn and the Stag.  
  
Does anybody know how to change U.S. dollars to pounds and Galleons/Sickles/Knuts?  
  
Disclaimer: See chapter 1 ya know I'm gonna stop saying this too. I am not J.K. Rowling, I am not taking credit, but if I find you are using my story line GOD HELP ME I WILL REPORT YOU!!! Thank you and have a nice day.  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter 20  
  
Their outing of Rita Skeeter went very quickly, fueled by their rage. They kept putting four-letter words into sentences also including her name. They took only one break, on Christmas for a snowball fight and, of course, presents.  
  
Harry got more presents than he ever had. The professors had felt so kindly towards him since that summer that they had given him presents. In all, he received exactly 20 gifts. His favorite was Rose's, who had given him a music box that played the song his mother used to sing for him, In Dreams. It was redwood with a deep red velvet and gold satin interior and had a carving of a stag on the top. He kept his ring there when he slept.  
  
After Christmas, they went right to work on their letters to the Ministry and Daily Prophet. It didn't take them long to finish. In the end, it looked like this:  
  
To Whom It May Concern:  
  
We would like to inform you that one Rita Skeeter has been using illegal means to gather stories for the newspaper she works for, The Daily Prophet. She is an unregistered Animagi, a beetle. She also uses a Quick-Quotes Quill, which were banned in 1923, to write her stories. We would appreciate it if you would apprehend her.  
  
"Perfect!" Rose said. She looked almost as pleased as when Malfoy got expelled. "I'll get Heartsong to send it. One of the others might be recognized." She whistled, and suddenly Heartsong appeared on her perch in a cloud of flame. Rose handed her the letter and watched her fly away. "Now I've got to do some damage control." She whirled and left the room to make an announcement in the Great Hall. Bill and the young Golds followed.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Rose was furious. Bill kept trying to console her, but it wasn't working.  
  
"Come on, love, don't take it out on your friends and your brother. Especially not your brother."  
  
She whirled around suddenly. He just didn't understand. "Bill! This means that any Death Eater in the world can find me. Everyone knows that there's another Potter now. I won't have any peace, people will point and whisper! Bill, you'd probably be better off without me."  
  
He grabbed her around the waist. "I'd be miserable without you. And I don't care if everyone stares. Why do you?"  
  
"It's just a natural fear. I got teased when I was a kid. I'm sensitive to teasing."  
  
"I'll be here to protect you. Besides, you're the most powerful witch in a century. No one messes with a Potter."  
  
"I won't be a Potter after I marry you."  
  
"What if you were?"  
  
"You want to keep my name?!"  
  
"Yes. It's a nice name." He grinned. "Anyways, Rose Weasly sounds a bit strange."  
  
She hugged him. Where had she managed to find such a great guy? "I love you Bill."  
  
"I love you too, Rosie."  
  
"Now I'd better get to the Great Hall before Mum and Daddy kill me."  
  
"Good point." She hurried off again, laughing at Bill and her friends struggling to catch up.  
  
She got to the Great Hall about ten minutes later. Her entourage got there about twelve minutes later. She laughed as they struggled in. She grabbed Bill, Hermione and Harry by the arm and pulled them up.  
  
"I am sure by now that you have all seen the Daily Prophet article about me." The students' heads nodded. "I am here to tell you about what is true and what is not." She took a deep breath. "I am, indeed, Harry Potter's older sister. I am not Rose Lynn Creek; I am Rose Lily Potter. Hermione Granger is the daughter of my mother's sister. So yes, she is my cousin." The students gasped. But most of the Gryffindors weren't surprised. Some of them raised their hands with questions.  
  
"Yes, Miss Brown?"  
  
"If you are Harry's sister, how did you escape the attack by You-Know-Who?"  
  
"That is a very good question." She sat down. "In short, I was protected by a friend of the family who was holding me when You-Know-Who entered the Potter home. She defended me, and I survived the same way my brother did. Professor Snape came to the house just after You-Know-Who left and brought me to Hogwarts. Yes, Mr. Creevey?"  
  
"Than do you have a scar like Harry's?" Dennis Creevey's small voice spoke up.  
  
"Yes, as a matter of fact I do." She pulled back her bangs to reveal the lightning-bolt scar that was identical to her brother's. The students gasped. "I thank you for listening to me yammer on about things you have already heard from the Daily Prophet." She strode out of the room with Bill on her arm and Harry and Hermione struggling to keep up. The other Golds quickly stood up and followed. Rose was pleased.  
  
"Grab your dates and pack your trunks," she said. "We're going to Muggle London early. Hermione, notify your parents. They live in London, correct?" She nodded. "Parvati, Padma, you'd better go get Dean and Seamus. I know you all really like each other and if you don't bring them with you, you might not see them for quite a while. We're going on the trip early."  
  
"Why?" Ron asked.  
  
"Ron, don't be daft," Bill told him. "With the news that Rose is still alive and that a Potter cousin exists, You-Know-Who will be desperate to get his hands on them. And if anyone finds out that the rest of you are Golds.I'd rather not think about it."  
  
"But why do we have to bring our dates?"  
  
"That is a treat. Do not spoil it. They are expendable. Except for Bill, of course," she said, hugging him again.  
  
"Not fair!"  
  
"Why Bill?"  
  
"Does that mean I'm expendable?" Ginny asked. Her eyes were wide and she was clutching Harry's arm.  
  
"No, no," Rose said hastily. "I thought Harry had told you. You're Gold too, remember?" She nodded and didn't grip Harry's arm quite so hard. "Now get your things. Make sure you have enough of everything. Fred, George, go get some food off the house-elves in the kitchen. A lot of food." They nodded and took off. "Please work fast! We don't have much time."  
  
They had reached Gryffindor Tower. Everyone scrambled through the portrait hole ("Blundering Beaters") to grab their trunks except for, of course, Padma, who was a Ravenclaw. Rose ducked through her picture of the Potters ("Avril Rocks") and shrunk the trunk she had packed on Boxing Day. The others were already waiting for her when she came back out. Dean and Seamus looked confused.  
  
"Padma, Parvati, please explain to them," Rose said tiredly. She was tired of explaining. "I've got a Portkey waiting to take us into the Leaky Cauldron. I have Muggle clothes for all of you. We can't go waltzing around Muggle London in robes and cloaks." The Muggle-borns and Harry nodded. She pulled a wallet out of her pocket. Everyone but Rose and Bill placed a finger on it.  
  
"We're Apparating," Bill explained.  
  
"You should go in about five.four.three.two.one."  
  
Suddenly the group and their trunks disappeared. Rose and Bill followed.  
  
*~*~*  
  
They met up in the Leaky Cauldron a few minutes later. Rose handed them their Muggle clothes.  
  
"Put your trunks in room one-oh-eight," she said. "We'll keep them there for a while. You'll find wallets in the pocket of your pants or your purse, whichever I handed you. It's something Muggles use to keep money in. We'll need to change some money into Muggle money, too." The Muggle-borns and the Weaslys all nodded, but the purebloods looked confused. Rose sighed. Inexperienced kids.  
  
"Some of you have taken Muggle Studies, right?" Several people nodded. "Obviously, you didn't pay attention! Could some of you that did please help them?" Hermione and the Patils nodded. "Good." She went into one of the rooms to change.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Hermione was watching Harry, Ron, Dean, and Seamus, who were arguing about who got to change first.  
  
"I have my hand in the room!"  
  
"You do not. That's your finger."  
  
"It still counts!"  
  
"Not if I crush it." Seamus shut the door on Ron's finger.  
  
"OW! Seamus!"  
  
"Ha! I have my foot in there!" Dean had managed to get a corner of his shoe into the sliver of door.  
  
"Not if I crush it," Harry said. He was about to slam the door on Dean's foot when Hermione saw them squabbling.  
  
"Honestly!" She grabbed the door handle and shut the door on Dean's toe, Ron's finger, Harry's foot and three of Seamus's fingers.  
  
"OW!" they all said. The other girls saw them and shook their heads.  
  
"Boys." The other girls were already changed. Their dresses were all the same design, a beige knee-length skirt with a tiny slit in the side and a peasant blouse. The blouses were different colors. Ginny's was spring green, Rose's was pale blue, the Patils' were pink, the Bernards' were pale yellow, and Hermione, who had just finished, had a cream blouse. The boys were goggling.  
  
The girls thought that the boys looked quite nice in their jeans and sweaters. The sweaters were navy, forest green, or dark red. Hermione thought that Ron looked quite handsome in navy. Ginny, of course, was extremely busy telling Hermione how great Harry looked in forest green.  
  
*I think Mum was right, you know when she bought him those robes last year? That shade of green brings out his eyes wonderfully.*  
  
*Your brother looks hot in the navy.*  
  
*You'd better not be talking about my fiancé, Bernard.*  
  
*That was me, Hermione.*  
  
*Oh, sorry. I guess navy is just a Weasly color.*  
  
*Dean looks so cute in the red.*  
  
*Parvati! Dean's mine!*  
  
*Yeah, yeah.*  
  
*Hello, ladies.*  
  
*Mind if we join you?*  
  
*YES! GO AWAY!* they all mentally yelled. Fred and George, the interrupters, grabbed their heads. The girls simultaneously grinned and went back to talking.  
  
*Rose, do we get to go to the Bahamas first?*  
  
*Alex, you live in Florida. You've been to the Bahamas eight times and have a summer home there.*  
  
*Yeah, but the guys down there are hot.*  
  
*They all think Brit girls are cute.*  
  
*Yeah. We know exactly what they think about us.*  
  
*Using your powers for evil rather than good again, eh, Bernard?*  
  
"Hermione." Ron was waving his hand in front of her face. "Snap out of it. We need to go."  
  
Hermione sat up with a jolt. She hadn't realized how much time had gone by. "Sorry, Ron. I'm just glad you didn't try the same thing the twins did." She looked back on Fred and George, who were still rubbing their temples.  
  
"You'd have to be crazy. But their reaction was very funny." They laughed.  
  
"Hey, lovebirds. We've got to get to Gringotts," Rose said.  
  
"Excuse me, O sister, but I do not believe we are the lovebirds," Harry said to Rose, who was cuddling Bill.  
  
"Shut up, Harrison."  
  
"Fine, Rosemary."  
  
"Both of you shut up!" They did. Everyone was very good at following Hermione's orders.  
  
It took them about forty-five minutes to change the money and get into Muggle London. Each of them had $100 for personal use, and Rose was carrying $500 for their supplies.  
  
"Let's go in there," Rose said, pointing to a three-level Galleon's store (I don't know if they have those in the UK or not. Work with me here; I'm an American freak). The purebloods, except for Harry and Rose, of course, were confused at the store's name.  
  
"Does it have anything to do with money?" Dean asked.  
  
"No. If it did, we wouldn't be going there."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"It carries camping supplies. Tents, dried food, backpacks, first-aid kits. Things like that." She noticed their confused faces. "Oh, just come inside and see." They entered the huge store.  
  
"Wow," George said.  
  
"Wow," Fred repeated.  
  
"Wow," Ron echoed. Hermione sighed.  
  
"Pureblood half-wits."  
  
"Shut up, Mione."  
  
"Don't ever put down a pureblood, Granger," came a drawling voice from behind them. Everyone whirled. Draco Malfoy and his father.  
  
*~*~*  
  
"Malfoy," Harry said with disgust.  
  
"Of course, the Weasels hardly qualify as purebloods. With their bumbling, Muggle-loving fool of a father," Draco Malfoy said. The Weaslys all promptly turned scarlet.  
  
Harry looked at Rose. He knew she had more of a reason to hate the Malfoys. Lucius knew this too, apparently. He saw her flushed face. It was not flushed in embarrassment.  
  
"I heard about your little.meeting with that friend of mine. I suppose you think he's dead." Lucius smiled at Rose's reaction to this. Her face was turning purple. Bill touched her arm, but it only made her go down to a bright red.  
  
"You'd better watch it, Malfoy," she said between gritted teeth.  
  
"Ah, I see your little Weasel husband has managed to talk some Muggle- loving into you. Obviously, since you're so fond of little Mudblood here." Ron was the same shade as Rose now. So were the rest of the Weaslys. Even Hermione and her friends were showing a shred of anger. Dean, Seamus and the Bernards simply backed away. Harry heard Seamus whisper to Alex.  
  
"Do you think they'll actually start throwing curses? In the middle of all these Muggles?"  
  
"Rose wouldn't," Alex murmured back. "She'd just beat the crap out of them. Harry wouldn't either. I'm just worried that they might not be able to control it."  
  
They were right. As his friends and family exchanged insults with the Malfoys, Harry and Rose felt the magic building inside of them. They knew the rest of them could feel it, too. They figured it was only a few seconds between them and blowing things up.  
  
In the middle of Muggle London.  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
Whew! That's eight pages on Microsoft Word. Longest chappie yet. My fingers hurt. And will somebody please tell me how to convert US dollars into UK pounds and back. I truly have no clue. So I'm just gonna use US dollars for a while. Work with me here, people. And does anyone know if they have Galleon's stores in England? I am such an American. 


	20. The Phoenixes Have Landed

Thanks to all my reviewers!  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter 21  
  
Rose was trying desperately to push down the magic bubbling up inside her, but it wasn't working. She tried concentrating it instead.  
  
*Focus the magic! Focus it at the Malfoys and only the Malfoys! Otherwise we could do some serious damage.*  
  
She felt the others struggling to control the magic. They were barely in time. There was a loud whispering noise, and the Malfoys both dropped to the ground, apparently Stunned. The Golds quickly grabbed their dates and jogged upstairs. The girls busied themselves looking at bathing suits and hiking clothes, while the boys looked through the tents.  
  
"Hermione, what about this one?" Ginny said. She was holding up a cute pale blue bikini with a lavender star on the top.  
  
"I think the pink one with the spring green flower would look better on you."  
  
"Hermione, try this one," Ginny said, holding out an aqua bikini with deep blue straps.  
  
"I don't have enough to fill out the top."  
  
"Yes you do. More than I have."  
  
"You both would look great in them. Ginny, pink is a perfect color for you. Hermione, I think that the aqua brings out your hair and eyes," Rose said.  
  
"Really?" they said at the same time.  
  
"Really." She smiled. They made such cute friends.  
  
"Rose, how about this one?"  
  
"No way! This one's better!"  
  
"Is not!"  
  
The Bernards were each holding up bathing suits. Alex was holding a lime green one-piece. Ally was holding a white bikini with beige ties.  
  
"I want that one." Rose made a grab for the white one, but Ally snatched it out of her way. "I saw this pair of matching tankinis down there in blue and white." The Bernards dropped the suits they were holding and ran for the blue and white. Rose snatched the white off the floor.  
  
"Oh Rosie, how about this?" came a falsetto from behind her. She screeched and whirled around. Bill was grinning at her, holding up a flesh-tone thong bikini.  
  
"William Weasly! Go back to gaping at the tents!"  
  
He dropped the suit and scuttled off.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Harry was having fun picking out tents. Rose had handed them a good-sized wad of cash to pick out a good-sized one. She told they needed two, and they had to fit about five each. She didn't want the Muggles getting suspicious with about ten people in two two-man tents.  
  
So Harry, Bill, Dean, Ron, and Seamus were looking at tents. The Weaslys were searching a large rack of Muggle prank tricks and discussing how they could charm them to "improve" them.  
  
"Hey, Harry! Over here!"  
  
Harry followed Ron's shout to a good-sized tent with no screens or windows. The rest of the boys were with them (except for Fred and George). Bill and Seamus were inside the tents.  
  
"Hey Harry, come look at the insides! Can you believe Muggles sleep in things this tiny?"  
  
"How's Rose going to enchant it, anyways?"  
  
"One bedroom for every two people, two bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, dining room and a Jacuzzi."  
  
"Wow. She's had experience."  
  
"Our first date was camping in the Appalachians," Bill said, emerging from the tent. "We're going with these. They're perfect. Oi! You two!" he yelled at Fred and George. Their identical red heads peeked out from behind the prank rack. "Grab a tent! Oh, and all of you, whatever you do, don't make suggestions on what they should buy."  
  
They found the girls at the front counter. They had found everything they needed. Clothes, packets of dried food, first aid kits, sleeping bags, supplies for the bathrooms, kitchen supplies.  
  
"Wow," was Dean's reaction.  
  
"Oh, you found the tents? Let's see, we've spent.exactly $400," Rose said.  
  
"Is that a good amount?" Bill asked nervously. She gave him a Look.  
  
"Pureblood." she stopped because Alex had clapped a hand over her mouth.  
  
"The last time you said that word, Lucius Malfoy showed up like he was Summoned there. Shut up!" She did.  
  
They paid for their purchases and left for the Leaky Cauldron to pack them up and shrink them. The girls chattered and laughed about their clothes all the way. Harry looked back at Ginny. She looked really pretty when she laughed like that. He saw Ron staring at Hermione, who was holding an aqua bikini up to herself.  
  
"Ron! Snap out of it!" Harry said, waving his hand in front of his face.  
  
"I can imagine how hot she'll look in that."  
  
"Where's Ginny's suit?"  
  
"Shut up, Harry."  
  
"Ron, she's fourteen," Bill told him. "She's a big girl. Let her make her own decisions."  
  
Harry looked at Ron's suddenly sullen face with surprise. He hadn't thought Ron didn't like his sister dating. He hadn't minded them going to the ball together.  
  
Bill grinned. "Besides, what's wrong with my brother-in-law?"  
  
Ron turned pink.  
  
"Ooo, Ron," Padma said. "The Potters do seem to have a taste for Weaslys, don't they?"  
  
Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny all turned red. Bill and Rose just laughed and hugged again.  
  
"Ugh," Dean said.  
  
"They've been nuzzling each other in the hallways for weeks," Ron said. "I swear I'll hurl if I see them do that again."  
  
"Definitely," Harry agreed.  
  
Rose smacked Harry and Bill smacked Ron. Padma just rolled her eyes. "Rose!"  
  
"Hey! Billy!"  
  
Bill smacked him again.  
  
"Shut up, Ronnykins."  
  
Ron and Harry rubbed their arms where Bill and Rose had smacked them.  
  
*Too much sibling rivalry already.*  
  
*Living with five brothers for years is harder. I had Fred and George.*  
  
*I had Dudley.*  
  
*Good point.*  
  
*~*~*  
  
The girl's room in the Leaky Cauldron was a scattered mess of bathing suits, coats, shirts, pants, and shorts, and everyone was giggling. The girls were shrinking their clothes and putting them into their trunks.  
  
"How much did we spend again?" asked Alex, levitating a shrunken box of hair supplies into her trunk.  
  
"Four hundred dollars," Rose responded. She was packing the bag with all the vital things.  
  
"Hello, ladies," came a voice from the door.  
  
The girls screamed. "GET OUT, FRED!" Fred grabbed his head and ducked out the door, "accidentally" dropping something on the floor. It started filling the room with vivid orange smoke. The girls shrieked and ran. Hermione, however, kept a cool head.  
  
"Wingardium Leviosa!" she said, and levitated the smoking object out of the window, where it terrified several old witches on the street below.  
  
"I'll kill those horrid little." Ginny said several nasty words. She had apparently learned Ron's vocabulary over the summer.  
  
"Language, Miss Weasly."  
  
"Please call me Ginny."  
  
"Language, Ginny."  
  
The girls finished in about half an hour. They grabbed their boyfriends, who had been packed for an hour, and grabbed the Portkey Rose held out, a bottle of sunscreen. In about a minute, they were at their first destination, the Bahamas!  
  
*~*~*  
  
"Oh, look at the little cabin!" Rose squealed. It was so cute! It was a good-sized wooden hut about the size of Gryffindor Tower.  
  
"That's a cabin?" Harry said in disbelief.  
  
"Of course it is," Rose said. The girls' rooms are on the top floor, boys are on the bottom. There's a bathroom on each floor. The kitchen and the dining room are downstairs, there's a living room on each floor, and the breakfast room's connected to the balcony on the second floor. Here's a map." She pulled out fourteen maps of the spacious house and handed one to everyone. "As you can see, it's right on the beachfront. The pool and hot tub are out back. Any questions?"  
  
No one raised their hand.  
  
"Good. You can pick out your room. Everyone gets their own. I'm up for a beach party once we get changed; anyone else? The towels and sunscreen and umbrellas are in the big trunk in the main foyer."  
  
The girls shrieked and ran inside to change. The boys shook their heads and followed much more slowly.  
  
Rose pulled off her skirt and blouse to reveal the beige and white bikini from Galleon's and grabbed her towel from her newly resized trunk. She spread out the towel, slapped on some sunscreen, and put up a lavender umbrella. She stretched out onto the towel and relaxed. No Voldemort, no Death Eaters, and thank God no Malfoys. She could truly relax for the first time in months.  
  
*~*~*~*  
  
How long do you think she'll be able to relax? Maybe long enough to realize her wand's still in her trunk. Five hundred yards away. All alone on the beach. 


	21. Beach Party

Thanks to all of my reviewers!  
  
A/N: In case you were wondering, there are 14 people with Harry and Rose, including them. 7 girls, 7 boys. Also, I'm guessing that Bill's 21, Charlie's 20. Percy is currently 19. And in book 5, it is 1995. Look on Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party banner in book 2 and figure out what year it was then.  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter 22  
  
Ginny and Hermione were the last to join Rose on the beach.  
  
"I swear the look on his face when he opened his trunk."  
  
"It was classic!"  
  
The girls had spent some time to take revenge for the twins' dropping the smoke bomb into their room at the Leaky Cauldron. They had slipped a fake dragon's egg into their trunk that would sit still for fifteen seconds after a prearranged person saw it. It would then burst into a fake Hungarian Horntail and nearly swipe their head (or heads) off, then disappear into a huge cloud of black slime.  
  
"It took them forever to clean up the slime!"  
  
The girls laughed and stopped walking. They had reached the beach. It looked like half of Hogwarts had invaded the beach. The towels and umbrellas were spread out all over the beach, and the girls were giggling and shrieking at the boys, who had apparently decided to come out. Several couples had started some Muggle game Ginny didn't recognize. Every girl had climbed onto her boyfriend's shoulders and had them run around so she could knock other girls off their girlfriends. Harry and Ron sat and watched, the only boys left out. Hermione grabbed Ginny's hand and dragged her over to where they were sitting.  
  
"Ron! Come on, I want to play!"  
  
She dragged him out to the water and jumped on his shoulders. She looked back at Ginny and Harry.  
  
"Come on! It's really fun!"  
  
She ducked as Parvati made a lunge for her back. Ginny looked at Harry.  
  
"Do you want to try?"  
  
He smiled.  
  
"Sure."  
  
She grabbed his hand and they ran down to the water. They played for two hours before nearly drowning Rose and Bill. They emerged from the water a minute later, Rose shrieking.  
  
"There are dolphins down there! They pushed us back up!"  
  
The girls started begging her to teach them how to turn into a dolphin.  
  
"All right, I'll tell you! Shut your eyes, sit still, and picture a dolphin you want to turn into. Don't think about anything but the dolphin."  
  
Ginny dutifully did so. To her surprise, she felt her legs elongating and sticking together. Her arms got shorter and her fingers disappeared. She felt her mouth stretch out and dozens of teeth grow in. When she opened her eyes, she was underwater. Seven other dolphins surrounded her.  
  
*Kick your feet,* Rose's voice told everyone.  
  
They did so. Suddenly, they were moving out to deeper water with surprising speed.  
  
*This is awesome!* Ginny surprised herself. She hadn't known she could do this telepathy thing.  
  
*Where are the dolphins you saw?*  
  
*Over there. Use your sonar; the dolphin part of you knows how.*  
  
Ginny looked through her memories, trying to find out how to echolocate. She suddenly heard a series of squeaks and squeals from her own mouth and the others. She heard, rather than saw, a pod of about thirty dolphins playing near the ocean floor. The girls swam down to join them.  
  
The dolphins welcomed them joyfully, or so it seemed. They suddenly started ramming Rose with their snouts. Surprisingly, Rose pushed them back.  
  
*It's a game,* she explained. *Kind of like when little kids push each other and play fight.*  
  
Ginny suddenly understood. She punched the closest dolphin playfully with her snout. It clicked and squealed at her and whacked her back.  
  
*They can talk!*  
  
*Yes. Try a little harder and you can understand. You can speak it too. Listen.*  
  
Rose opened her snout and made a series of clicks and whistles. Ginny understood it to mean "Hello. Where are you from?" The dolphins spoke back.  
  
"We are from the Great Forest."  
  
"The Great Forest?" Ginny tentatively asked.  
  
"It's a kelp forest nearby. Dolphins love kelp; they must really like it there." She turned to the one that had spoken. "Could you lead us there? We are from a different part of the waters, we don't know much about this area." The dolphin made a movement that translated into yes. The pod turned and began to swim quickly out to sea. The girls followed. Unfortunately, the dolphins weren't dolphins.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Back at the beach, the boys were starting to worry. Well, not all the boys. Just Bill and Harry.  
  
"Seriously, Ron. I'm getting a bad feeling about the girls," Harry said desperately as having that tingly feeling inside his skull again. The last time he'd felt that, Voldemort had been attacking his sister.  
  
"I've got the same feeling, Ron. Something's up," Bill told him. "Why don't we go and get them?"  
  
"No way!" Ron said. "They can take care of themselves. They're the all- powerful Gold witches, aren't they?" Ron was in an exceptionally bad mood. The twins had been picking on him, and he had a stomach full of seawater which he kept hurling up.  
  
"Ron! Gold witches can't perform magic when they're in a non-human shape! I don't like the way this feels!"  
  
"Ron! Your sister's out there, and your girlfriend too! Show a little caring for them!"  
  
He stared at Harry. "Fine. I'll go get them. Just swim out a few miles and drag them back by the tails!"  
  
Bill sighed. "Honestly, Ron, you never listen, do you?" He waded into the water until he was about up to his waist. He then changed quickly into a harbor porpoise. He stuck his head out of the water and whistled. Harry followed, and looked expectantly at Ron.  
  
"But what about the others?"  
  
*They'll come.*  
  
*You can do tel.*  
  
*Yes! Get in the water!*  
  
He did so. Abruptly, he made the transformation into harbor porpoise. Harry looked around. The others were doing the same.  
  
*Let's go find the girls.*  
  
They swam towards the kelp forest, barely visible in the distance.  
  
*~*~*  
  
They were right. The girls were in big trouble.  
  
Rose was desperately trying to persuade the girls to morph back into human shape. But they refused.  
  
*We'll be safer if we swim.*  
  
The "dolphins" had turned out not to be dolphins at all. They had changed into sharks in the middle of the kelp forest.  
  
*Death Eaters. Without a doubt.*  
  
*Think about what thirty sharks would do to seven girls.*  
  
*We can't do magic in this shape. If we go human, we can get back to shore.*  
  
*What if the Death Eaters eat us before we're fully human?*  
  
*They won't* Rose assured her. Liar, she thought. We've got about a fifty- fifty chance.  
  
*On the count of three, if you want to change, do it. Picture yourself standing on the beach. One.two.three!*  
  
Rose focused all her thoughts into herself lying on the beach. She felt the dolphin parts of her change back into human. But when she opened her eyes, she wasn't on the shore.  
  
*Rose,* Parvati said nervously. *It didn't work.*  
  
*Okay, okay. I can see what's happened here. You can't leave unless you Apparate.*  
  
*We can't Apparate.*  
  
*I can. The Bernards can. Everybody grab one of our hands.*  
  
Everyone made a rush for the hand of one of the twenty-year-olds.  
  
*Alex. Ally. On the count of five.*  
  
The Death Eaters started swimming towards them.  
  
*One.*  
  
Twenty feet.  
  
*Two.*  
  
Ten feet.  
  
*Oh, shit. FIVE!*  
  
They disappeared. But not before a shark found its teeth in Rose's flesh.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Harry and the boys found the remains of the sharks five minutes later.  
  
*Ugh,* Harry said.  
  
The sharks had apparently gone into a feeding frenzy.  
  
*These aren't sharks,* Bill said. *They're Death Eaters.*  
  
*Death Eater Animagi? Uh oh.*  
  
*I think it's just transfiguration.*  
  
*Well, what happened to the girls?*  
  
*Rose and her friends must have Apparated with them. You can take passengers for Apparating.*  
  
*Then we came out here for nothing?*  
  
*I still have a bad feeling,* Harry said nervously. In fact, the feeling was getting worse.  
  
*Me, too,* Bill said.  
  
*Let's get back to the mansion.*  
  
*Sure. Fred and George got their Apparating licenses in July. So they'll take some people and I'll take some people. You two. On the count of three. One.two.three.*  
  
They Disapparated.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Back at the mansion, Rose was having trouble walking.  
  
"Rose, are you all right?" Hermione asked.  
  
"I'm fine. Just a little cut." She was being half truthful. It was just a cut.  
  
"A cut? Let me see it." Hermione grabbed her right arm to look at it. "Whoa! This isn't just a little cut!"  
  
"It is a cut," Rose mumbled. She had to admit, it wasn't little. One of the sharks had dug his teeth into her shoulder and pulled his jaw back. This resulted in Rose ending up with a patch of skin the size of her hand being pulled of her shoulder and getting a shark tooth stuck in her flesh. She had been covering it up with the towel she'd grabbed off the beach.  
  
"Rosie, I swear, you'd say you were all right if you belonged in Saint Mungo's," Alex said.  
  
"We should know, after the semis of the World Cup when we were 18," Ally added.  
  
"She broke both her arms and still caught the Snitch. Afterward, she said she was 'fine.'"  
  
"Shut up, Bernard."  
  
She caught the slight wobble in her voice. Apparently, so did everyone else.  
  
"Told you you weren't all right."  
  
"I told you to shut up, Bernard," she mumbled. She heard a splashing and turned around. Seven harbor porpoises were beaching themselves on the sand and turning into the boys. They ran up the beach to where the girls were standing. Rose sat down. She just felt tired all of a sudden.  
  
"What happened?" Bill said.  
  
"Death Eater in the form of a shark pulled off Rose's shoulder," Hermione said. "She's got a space the size of her hand missing and there's a tooth embedded in the muscle."  
  
"Let me take a look." He gasped when he saw the size and depth of the wound. "For God's sake Rosie, this isn't just a little cut! How long have you had this?"  
  
"About ten minutes."  
  
Come on, you need to get inside."  
  
Bill's arms picking her up off the sand was the last thing she remembered before she blacked out. 


	22. We're Going to Disney World!

Disclaimer: I had to put this in just in case. There are a few mentions of The X-Files. That show and the characters belong to Chris Carter, 20th Century Fox, and 1013 Productions.  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter 23  
  
Hermione was worried. She had taken a few first aid courses over the summer, and knew that a wound like this had to be treated as soon as possible at a hospital.  
  
"Bill, where's the nearest hospital?"  
  
He had laid Rose on the largest of all of the second floor bedrooms. Hermione was snapping at the boys, telling them to get bandages and scissors and such.  
  
"Orlando."  
  
"Not good. Fred, these are cream! I need something solid white, no dye!"  
  
"Do you know how to treat this?"  
  
"I took a few first aid courses over the summer. Just for fun; I'm interested in medicine. I know how, but she's lost a lot of blood. It can't be healed magically. And I don't have any anesthesia."  
  
"Don't need any. I can just tell Ginny to make one of her famous potions."  
  
"That would be wonderful," Hermione said with relief. She hadn't wanted to perform an operation without anesthesia. Ginny ran to the fireplace downstairs with her cauldron and potions ingredients.  
  
Hermione looked at the wound. "Could you try to find the flap of skin from here? I know it's not in the water, it was still on her shoulder on the beach." Ron swallowed hard, but nodded. "Good. There should be some solution in the plastic first aid kit, put the skin in that. Otherwise, it'll die." He ran out of the room.  
  
Hermione noticed her cousin nervously standing by the door. She felt sorry for him.  
  
"Harry, you're not going to do her any good by worrying. She'd want you to help. Can't you just picture her telling everybody to get things?"  
  
Harry smiled. "You mean, like you're doing?"  
  
She was pleased. "You think I'm doing what she would?"  
  
"Exactly."  
  
"You don't know how much I needed to hear that."  
  
"Is there anything I can get? I feel useless."  
  
"Yes. In the first aid kit, there's a needle and some thread. Boil them both in a pot of water for one minute." He nodded and left the room. Now it was only Hermione and Bill.  
  
"Bill, same for you. Do something. You're polishing the rug. Literally."  
  
He looked down, and grinned up at her sheepishly.  
  
"Go help Ginny or something. You're making me nervous."  
  
He quickly walked out the door. Ginny, Fred, Ron, and Harry returned with the skin, needle, thread, and bandages.  
  
"Good. I can start now. Just make sure Bill doesn't come in."  
  
Fred grinned and nodded. The boys scrambled out of the room.  
  
"Guess they don't like blood," she whispered to herself.  
  
She pulled on the latex gloves from the first aid kit, washed the wound, and explored it with the forceps. There were almost no foreign bodies, except for the tooth, of course. She could see it after prodding the skin a bit. It was a serrated, nasty looking thing. Luckily, only the tip was embedded in the muscle. She gently pulled it out with a pair of tweezers and dropped it into a plastic Zip-Loc. The only thing left to do was suture the skin back on.  
  
She picked up the needle, which Harry had already threaded. Hermione smiled. Harry was so helpful. She gently lifted the patch of skin from its Tupperware of solution. She rotated the skin until she could tell it was the right position and began stitching.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Ron was hurling in the toilet when Harry found him.  
  
"Ron?" he asked tentatively.  
  
"Yeah?" he answered hoarsely.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
"Yeah. Just the seawater. And I kinda looked in on Mione stitching up Rose." He bent over the toilet and retched again. "Never could stand blood."  
  
"You have a problem with blood?" He'd never minded it before.  
  
"I can stand just a little, but this was gory, Harry. The needle going in and out of her skin, and the blood kept coming out the sides." He retched again.  
  
"Has she finished?" Harry asked anxiously.  
  
"Yeah. I think," but Harry had already gone. Ron retched again.  
  
He stuck his head into the room. "Mione?"  
  
She turned around. "Yes, Harry?"  
  
"You done?"  
  
"Yes. And she's fine. Go tell Bill the same thing. He keeps picturing her head getting torn off by a shark."  
  
"She's really fine?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Harry stared into her eyes. He wanted some guarantee that his sister would be all right.  
  
He couldn't find any memories of anything going wrong. She'd just cleansed it, explored it, pulled out the tooth, and sewn it up. But what about the muscle?  
  
"Will her arm work?"  
  
"She won't be able to use it for a week, but it'll heal. The tooth barely punctured it."  
  
"But it's her right arm!"  
  
She went pale. "Her wand arm?"  
  
"Yes!"  
  
"We'll have to keep her inside or in the back. Someone will have to stay with her at all times."  
  
"I volunteer," came a voice from the door.  
  
"Bill," Hermione said, "she's fine. Go down to the pool or something. You're making everyone nervous."  
  
"Not me," a fourth voice mumbled.  
  
Hermione whirled. "Rose! Lie back down!"  
  
"No." She was sitting up. "I feel fine."  
  
"You do not." Harry could tell how much her arm hurt. "Your arm feels like it's falling off."  
  
She glared at him. "Shut up, Potter."  
  
"The Potter Temper!"  
  
"Not funny, Harry! Not funny!" she said. She turned to Hermione. "Hermione. How soon can I get up?"  
  
"Not for another day."  
  
"Crud."  
  
"You lost a lot of blood."  
  
"But will my shoulder work?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"How soon?"  
  
"Twenty-four hours."  
  
"It's my main arm! What am I going to do for twenty-four hours?!"  
  
"Watch TV."  
  
Rose's eyes suddenly lit up. "We have a TV? Satellite or cable?"  
  
"You just put in a request for a certain series or movie and it will come up."  
  
"You mean I just have to say 'The X-Files' and I'll get a tape of every episode ever?!"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"How do I get to the living room?"  
  
"Bill volunteered."  
  
"I did not!"  
  
"Yes you did."  
  
Bill pretended to grumble as he picked up Rose and carried her to the living room.  
  
"It's going to be very funny to watch him cart her around for twenty-four hours," she said.  
  
Harry started getting an idea. It was a good idea. Everyone would agree with it. At least, everyone but Rose.  
  
"Mione. What if that wound could be magically healed, but it would end up on the healer? Say I healed her."  
  
"No you won't."  
  
"Yes I will. The connection."  
  
"You're not healing her. I'm not letting you."  
  
"How are you going to stop me?"  
  
"I'm part of the connection. I'm related to you. I can stop you. I'm healing her."  
  
"Why you?"  
  
"Because I'm ambidextrous. It won't matter if my right arm doesn't function for a little while."  
  
"Fine. Do it."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I said do it."  
  
"Sure." Hermione closed her eyes. She looked like she was concentrating very hard. Her right arm went limp about thirty seconds later.  
  
"Got it."  
  
They heard a yell from downstairs. "HARRISON JAMES POTTER!!!"  
  
Harry glanced at Hermione. She had sat down onto a chair and was white as a sheet.  
  
"You okay, Mione?"  
  
"Yes. You aren't. Go down there and explain."  
  
She was still yelling. "HARRISON JAMES POTTER I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU DID THAT! YOU KNOW I DON'T NEED TO BE HELPED! THE LAST THING I NEED IS FOR YOU TO GET YOUR WAND ARM RUINED!!!"  
  
Harry ran down the stairs with his fingers stuffed in his ears. Everyone downstairs had jumped under various tables, chairs, and couches and put silencing spells on them.  
  
"AND JUST WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT OF BED?! YOU'LL RUIN THE MUSCLE PERMANATLY!" Then she realized his arm was working just fine. "If your arm isn't hurting, how did you heal me?" she asked in a normal tone of voice.  
  
"I didn't. Our cousin wouldn't let me. She healed you."  
  
"I'll kill her."  
  
"Don't. Please."  
  
"Fine. Whatever you say." She pulled out her wand and undid the silencing spells. "I'm watching the X-Files anyway. Ron, go get your girlfriend. We're gonna have a movie fest!" Ron grinned and ran upstairs to get Hermione.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Rose walked up to the TV that was the size of a movie screen. She tapped the screen with her wand three times and said, "The X-Files!" Immediately, the series premiere started playing. Rose squealed and dove for Bill's lap. She loved this show!  
  
"Oh, that's Scully Hair number one! And that's the black pants suit! There's the beige! Ew! When's the last time she wore the puce? Look at Mulder's hair! It's never changed!"  
  
She sat and alternated between squealing about how Mulder and Scully were perfect for each other and screaming whenever mutants jumped at somebody's neck. They were in the fourth episode of the first season when they noticed Ron and Hermione still weren't back.  
  
"Bill, come on." She woke him up from a light nap. "Let's go make sure my cousin and my brother-in-law aren't making out, okay?"  
  
He sat up. "You mean Ron and Hermione?"  
  
"How many other cousins do I have? And don't say anything about the brother- in-law part."  
  
They stood up off the couch and walked up the elegant redwood banister. When they got to the room Hermione had claimed, there was no answer to the knock. Bill tried the handle. It was open.  
  
Rose was getting a tingly feeling in the back of her skull. She looked at Bill and could tell he was feeling it, too. They pushed open the door and gasped.  
  
Hermione and Ron were lying in a pool of their own blood. 


	23. America vs Bulgaria

Sorry if the chapter's kind of boring. But PLEASE don't skip it! There's important information here!  
  
The Unicorn and the Stag  
  
Chapter 24  
  
Harry was getting that bad feeling again. This time it was worse. He noticed that the others seemed to be enjoying the TV less. He decided to ask them.  
  
"Any of you have the feeling something's wrong?"  
  
Everyone jumped. They all began mumbling "sort of" and "a little bit." Suddenly, Harry's scar started aching. He reached up and rubbed it. Padma noticed.  
  
"Your scar hurts?" He nodded.  
  
"Yeah. My knee hurts."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"When Parvati and I were six, we both broke a kneecap. We had to have magical surgery. But they hurt when something's wrong. The last time was at the Quidditch Cup right before the Death Eaters came."  
  
The others nodded. "I guess we all have little alarm bells."  
  
Suddenly, they heard a scream. Everyone rushed upstairs, X-Files forgotten.  
  
They ran into the room Ron and Hermione had been in. Rose and Bill were standing in the middle of a pool of blood, where Ron and Hermione lay.  
  
"Are they dead?" Parvati whispered.  
  
"No. I can hear their heartbeats."  
  
"But look at all that blood! What happened?"  
  
"I don't know. We came in and saw them lying there." She buried her head in Bill's chest.  
  
"Rose," Bill said gently. "Can you talk to them? Do that dream-control thing." She lifted her head and nodded. "Please do."  
  
*~*~*  
  
Rose took a deep, shaky breath and climbed onto the huge canopy bed. She lay back onto the pillows and relaxed. Almost immediately, she heard Ron and Hermione. They were having a sort of dream. She listened to their conversation.  
  
*Where are we?* Hermione said.  
  
*I don't know. What happened?*  
  
*I think we're dead.*  
  
Rose brought herself fully into their dream. *You're not dead. You're passed out on Hermione's bedroom floor.* They looked relieved. *Don't be too relieved. You're lying in a huge pool of blood.*  
  
*How did it get there?*  
  
*I was hoping you could tell me that.*  
  
Hermione frowned. *Ron came in to get me. He said we were going to have an X-Files fest. Then I felt something in my back and I was here.*  
  
Rose began to realize what had happened. *Hermione, turn around.*  
  
*What?*  
  
*Turn around. I want to see your back.*  
  
She dutifully turned. Rose gasped at what she saw.  
  
A long gash extended from the top of her left shoulder blade to her spine. Ron looked like he would hurl again.  
  
*Christ Almighty, Mione, how could that not be insanely painful?* Ron said.  
  
She craned her neck and turned white. *I think Ron probably has one too,* Rose said.  
  
He slowly turned. He did have a cut, but this started at the base of his neck and went to his shoulder. He turned his head and went green.  
  
*Please, Ron. Not now.*  
  
He nodded and looked away. Rose looked at Hermione. Time to tell her.  
  
*Hermione, I think you can heal both of you.*  
  
She looked startled. *How?*  
  
*Every Gold witch or wizard has a power, a sort of specialty. I believe yours is healing.*  
  
*Why do you think that?*  
  
*You healed my shark bite two hours more quickly than a hospital could have.*  
  
*So?*  
  
*Your father's broken elbow.*  
  
*How do you know about that?*  
  
*Your mother's sprained wrist.*  
  
*What about when I cause the injuries?*  
  
*You heal them anyway.*  
  
She sat down on a little bench. *So I'm a 'healer?' What do I need to do?*  
  
*The same thing you did with me.*  
  
*But then I'll just have the gashes.*  
  
*Only for a few minutes. After about five minutes, your body automatically heals itself.*  
  
*Then why hasn't it done so?*  
  
*Because you're unconscious and can't will it to happen.*  
  
*Oh. So all I do is touch Ron's neck and I get the cut? And then both my cut and his cut juts heal?*  
  
*Exactly.*  
  
*Okay. Come here, Ron.*  
  
He sat down next to her on the bench and turned his back to her. She ran her long finger up and down the cut. Rose watched, amazed, as the cut slowly scabbed over, and the scab fell off, leaving only a thin white scar. He disappeared.  
  
*Whoa! What happened to him?*  
  
*I think he's conscious again. You won't be until your cuts go away.*  
  
She nodded. *So what are these 'powers,' anyway? How many are there?*  
  
*There are nine. They're healing, time manipulation, telekinesis, clairvoyance, language, empathy-*  
  
*What's that?*  
  
*Basically, you can tell what's going on around you. What's wrong with people, how they feel. Stuff like that. Anyways, the last four are weather manipulation, teleportation without Apparating, mind control, and, well, see-through vision.*  
  
*You mean X-ray vision? Cool!*  
  
*It's kind of weird, I know.*  
  
*Which power do you have?*  
  
*I don't know. Really, I only know yours.*  
  
Suddenly, Hermione started to look fuzzy, like a TV set was breaking. She flickered a few times, and then disappeared. Rose brought herself out of the dream.  
  
Rose jumped out of the bed. The Bernards, the Patils, and Harry were waiting in the room. Hermione's eyes were flickering open, and Bill and the Weasly twins were carrying Ron downstairs. The Bernards picked up Hermione and put her in the bed.  
  
"What happened?" Ally asked.  
  
"Hermione's the healer."  
  
"Well, that explains a lot."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"Like how that shoulder cut is completely gone."  
  
"Let me see!" And it had. There was only a thin white scar where it had been. The others gaped.  
  
"Alex, you explain. I've already explained once." She walked out of the room and slid down the banister to go watch the X-Files.  
  
*~*~*  
  
"So which am I?" Harry asked.  
  
Alex and Ally had finished explaining the nine powers.  
  
"I don't know. Ask your sister."  
  
"Ask whoever's empathic."  
  
"Who's that?"  
  
"Ask your sister."  
  
Harry rolled his eyes and followed his sister down the stairs. He snuck up behind her and switched off the TV. She jumped and whirled.  
  
"Harry! What did you do that for?"  
  
"Who's the empath?"  
  
"I don't know. I only know Hermione."  
  
"Guess."  
  
"I think it's Ginny."  
  
"So do I," said Ginny. "And I can't tell what you are." She had followed Harry down the stairs. "I can't tell what your sister is, either. I think I know for a second, but then I notice something else. It's very confusing."  
  
"Ginny," Rose said. "How long have you known?"  
  
"Since I was thirteen."  
  
"Wow."  
  
"Harry."  
  
"What, Rose?"  
  
"Come here."  
  
She dragged him into the kitchen.  
  
"I know what everyone's powers are."  
  
"Then what are we?"  
  
"I think everything. We've got a bit of everything, but that makes each power less strong."  
  
"So we're the weak ones?"  
  
"No. We're the powerful ones."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Go unpack. I want to check out the hot tub."  
  
He grabbed his trunk from the foyer and dragged it to the room closest to the kitchen. He was shocked at the size of the room. He had thought it would be the size of a hotel room, but this was the size of the entire Gryffindor boys' dorm. It was decorated in the same colors, too.  
  
He opened his trunk and hung all his clothes in the walk-in closet. He put the music box Rose had given him on the dresser. He noticed there was another TV in the room and a computer with internet access and games. He looked into some of the other rooms. They were identical.  
  
He heard a shout from the backyard. "HOT TUB PARTY!"  
  
He grinned. It was Rose and the Bernard twins. When he got to the backyard, everyone else was already there. Even Hermione and Ron.  
  
"Finally! We were afraid we wouldn't make my goal!" the Bernards said. They were sitting on the Weasly twins' laps.  
  
"What was your goal, anyway?" Rose asked.  
  
"Everybody!"  
  
"How long do we get to stay here?" Bill asked Rose, who was sitting on his lap.  
  
"A week. We get ten weeks for the trip."  
  
"Only a week?"  
  
"We can always use the time manipulator." Harry noticed her eyes glanced ever so slightly at Alexa Bernard.  
  
"Oh no. Talk to weather girl. Make her make a hurricane so we're stuck here," she said, looking at her sister.  
  
Everyone stared.  
  
"You said you didn't know the powers!"  
  
"We lied."  
  
"Not fair!"  
  
"Alex is time, Ally is weather, Ginny is empathy, Hermione is healing, Fred is telekinesis, George is clairvoyance, Parvati is language, Padma is mind control, and Ron is the vision."  
  
"That must be why I can see into the twins' room."  
  
"Shut up, Ronnykins."  
  
"Make me."  
  
Fred pulled out his wand and did a silencing spell on Ron. He turned red and started mouthing desperately. Everyone but he and Hermione laughed. Hermione pulled out her own wand and said the counter spell. He kissed her.  
  
The boys groaned. Their girlfriends jumped off their laps.  
  
"Come on! Let's try out the diving board!" Rose ran for the high dive, did a triple jackknife and landed with only a tiny splash. She surfaced.  
  
"Diving contest!" She yelled. The Bernards ran for the board and tried quadruple jackknifes but ended up belly flopping and making a huge splash. Rose laughed at them.  
  
Within minutes, the only two divers left were Rose and Bill. Everyone else was sitting on a chair with red stomachs.  
  
Rose went first. She landed a perfect quadruple jackknife and made no splash at all. Bill wasn't so good. He tried to copy her but ended up belly flopping like the rest. Rose laughed and declared herself champion.  
  
"And as such, I get to make out with Bill without all of you groaning!" The boys ran. The girls watched from windows.  
  
*~*~*  
  
When Rose had blacked out all the windows with her wand, she sat down with Bill by the pool.  
  
"You and Harry are the ones, aren't you?" he asked.  
  
"Yes. I didn't know. Really I didn't."  
  
"I believe you."  
  
"Good. I was worried."  
  
"Sweetie, I always believe you. I learned you are always right years ago."  
  
She laughed. "Good." And she leaned in for a kiss.  
  
*~*~*  
  
Unknown to them, Hermione had undone the Blackout Charm on one of the windows. She and the other girls crowded around it and watched Rose and Bill make out. But it got rather boring after a while, so they went into the living room for an Elijah Wood movie fest.  
  
"Oh he is so hot!"  
  
"How old is he?"  
  
"Fourteen."  
  
"Aw."  
  
"That's only a year younger! Well, six for you."  
  
"Still, he's younger."  
  
"Alex, your boyfriend is three years younger."  
  
She grumbled. "I hate losing arguments. I'm going to my room and playing on the computer." She got up off the couch and sauntered over to the room closest to the bathroom.  
  
"What's a computer?" Parvati asked. Hermione and Ginny rolled their eyes.  
  
"Pureblood fools."  
  
Everyone looked around, expecting to see Lucius Malfoy and his son pop up out of thin air.  
  
"See? No Malfoys. No Dark Lord. No Death Eaters. Not even a Slytherin."  
  
Everyone relaxed and went back to squealing over Elijah Wood. They had to change movies to James Bond when the boys came in.  
  
"See, Ally? Now this is a good movie. Not a family or a drama. Action."  
  
"Shut up, Fred. Never dis Elijah Wood."  
  
"Whatever. Now let's finish the movie."  
  
Rose and Bill came in halfway through.  
  
"Oh, is this The Spy Who Loved Me?" Rose asked. "I love this movie!" She plunked down on the nearest couch.  
  
*~*~*  
  
The rest of their stay in the Bahamas was whirlwind of beach parties and pool parties, hot tub parties, diving contests, and movie fests. It was all too soon that they had to leave.  
  
"Rose, do we have to go?" Ally whined.  
  
Rose scowled. "Bernard, the next time you ask I am putting a silencing spell on you! Yes, we have to leave!" Ally and Alex had been begging to stay for the past two hours. "Get your trunks. Here's the Portkey."  
  
She held out a Mickey Mouse hat. Everyone looked at her.  
  
"What? We are going to Disney World."  
  
"We're going to Disney World?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"What's Disney World?"  
  
"Shut up, Dean!"  
  
"All right, all right!"  
  
Everyone put a finger to an ear and they appeared in a forest just outside of Disney World.  
  
"I thought we were going to Disney World," Hermione said, looking around.  
  
"We are. This is a campground. See, those are tents."  
  
"Oh. Right."  
  
"Come on, our spot is right over here." Rose dragged the trunk holding the tents and camping supplies to a spot right outside the forest.  
  
"Bill! Make yourself useful and help me out here!"  
  
Rose was trying to put up the tents. She saw Bill's grin and glared at him.  
  
"Just what is so funny?"  
  
"You have it upside down."  
  
Everyone quickly hid grins.  
  
The tents took half an hour to put up. By the time they were right side up with the stakes in the right places, it was dark.  
  
"Okay, Ally said, straightening her back. "Girls' tent on the right, boys' is on the left. Go unpack. You're sharing a room."  
  
"But there's and odd number of boys and girls!"  
  
"Bill gets his own room and so does Rose."  
  
"Why them?"  
  
"Because they're the only ones whose friends don't already have a roomie," Alex said, grinning at Rose. Rose threw a pillow at her.  
  
"Shut up, Bernard."  
  
"Oh, she's mad," Fred said, pretending to be horrified.  
  
"She never calls anyone Bernard when she's happy. If you're Bernard, she's mad," George told her. They suddenly found themselves in their tent.  
  
"Dirty cheat!" George yelled. Everyone laughed. Rose smirked.  
  
"Okay, into the tents! We need too unpack; it's ten at night!" She dragged her trunk into the room in the middle of everyone. It was fairly nice, a redwood bunk bed with comforters and a sheet. There were two dressers, a closet, and a connected bathroom with a claw footed tub. She changed into her pajamas and collapsed onto her bed. She had to get some sleep. Tomorrow they went into Disney World! 


End file.
